Lynda Beriault

Lynda Beriault was a true pioneer in the PH community. After receiving her PH diagnosis, she became one of the very first PH patients in Canada to go on Flolan®, participating in the clinical trials that would one day make the first treatment for PH available to patients across the country. In the early 1990s—when very little was known about the disease, and a complete lack of support and information would leave PH patients feeling orphaned and alone—Lynda started one of Canada’s first patient support groups, in collaboration with the Montreal PH clinic at the Jewish General Hospital (led by Dr. David Langleben). Together, Lynda and Dr. Langleben wanted to provide much needed support to patients and their families. Lynda was also acutely aware of how difficult it was for French patients to get information on the disease and advocated throughout her PH journey for more French support everywhere possible. This made Lynda an essential addition to the Founding Board of Directors of PHA Canada in 2008, where she continued to represent the French Canadian community on a national scale.

Lynda’s ability to develop close relationships with people made her incredibly unique and essential to getting PHA Canada to where it is today. Her love for creating links between members of the PH community helped immensely in the process of unifying the PHamily, and ultimately cultivating a national collaboration to better understand and combat the disease together.

Lynda was an incredibly hard worker and helped to improve the lives of patients all across Canada. She was determined to ensure that everyone got equal access to treatment and resources so that they could have the best quality of care. Her help and influence were invaluable to empowering the PH community in Canada and we are eternally grateful for the work she did both for the PH community and as part of PHA Canada’s Board of Directors.