Our Stories

Most of our funding requests come from Social Workers at BC Children's Hospital and the staff at Ronald McDonald House BC. In many cases children and their families need funding to cover medical related items that are not covered by healthcare or other sources. There are day-to-day living expenses the families cannot afford due to the circumstances around their child's medical condition. A common theme is that the family has had to give up at least one of their family income streams when their severely sick child requires full time care. We are happy to say that due to the ongoing support of our loyal friends, associates and funders we have been able to approve most of the requests submitted. Thanks to all who have and continue to support us with donations (just a reminder that we can issue tax receipts for funds donated to us and that we can accept credit cards, cheques or e-transfers)!

Here is a snapshot of some initiatives we have funded:

(Ongoing) - We fund a program in conjunction with Ronald McDonald House of BC (RMH) to assist families who have long term stays there so that they can re-establish themselves upon returning to their homes when their child is discharged from hospital. We provide a gift certificate package (gas to get home, food to re-stock their fridges, and clothing).

Some low-income families have high costs for medical prescriptions. They qualify for BC's Fair Pharmacare support but there are initial deductible amounts that families must pay before they start getting the government support. Better Days Society has funded the upfront deductible amounts for the year, so the family has no out of pocket costs for the large prescription costs.

We funded the purchase of prescriptions for a young boy with severe allergies, as they were not totally covered by BC medical.

We funded the replacement of a washer and drier for a low-income family whose young daughter has a condition that leaves them having to do laundry very frequently. They did not have the resources to buy a new set when their current set stopped working.

We funded a Self-Injurious Behavior Clinic Assessment for a young child as those costs were not covered by other sources.

Currently, most of our opportunities to assist low-income families with extremely sick children, are coming from both Ronald McDonald House BC and various social workers at BC Children's Hospital.

A young child from outside the Lower Mainland developed a very serious infection in his body which required intense treatments at BCCH. He needed custom-made bandages to assist with healing of his hands and feet, and the cost of these was high. The parent had to give up her home and job to bring her child to Vancouver for treatment. BDS provided funding for some food and clothing. We also covered the cost of future bandages until they are no longer needed.

A boy and his single father had been at RMH for over 290 nights when we were introduced to their situation. Dad was single parenting (he lost his wife the previous year) and had another son who stayed with the grandparents in their hometown. We were able to assist with gas and food gift certificates.

A 2 ½ year old girl was born with very rare form of skin cancer. She had over 30 surgeries, most of which were complicated skin grafts. Her Dad was single parenting and had to give up his job, as his daughter required constant care. Concerned family and friends started up a trust fund to assist paying some of the costs associated with her treatments. BDS contributed to this trust fund for numerous years, so that we could take some of the pressure off the family as it gives them some reliable funding.

Over our history, BDS has also assisted families who have found themselves in financial distress because of costs related to child's medical care by providing:

• Travel costs to attend Eating Disorder Clinics for an out-of-town family.
• Travel costs for an out-of-town family to have their child assessed for health treatment opportunities.
• Shoes for a young boy who, due to his disability, had two significantly different sized feet. Each time the child needed new shoes, they needed to buy two pairs.
• Assistance in the purchase of an accessible van to help with transport of a child with a disability and their family.
• Contribution to an organization that was taking a group of special needs children to an out-of-town baseball tournament.