top of page
NEWS & MEDIA
PH Blog
Putting the PH in PHamily.
Welcome to PHA Canada’s community blog. Here, you can hear from patients, medical providers, caregivers, and much more.
If you are interested in submitting an article, contact us at info@phacanada.ca.
New Faces, Lasting Connections: My First PH Conference Experience
The 2024 Pulmonary Hypertension Patient Symposium in Calgary was my first rodeo, as it were. I started dating my partner Tarya in the...
Simon Goring
Feb 19
Patient Voice: Angel's Story
Angel Ouellet One day when I was six years old, I saw a favourite teacher at the end of the corridor at school and ran to give them a...
Patient Voice
Jan 16
Patient Voice: Rose's Story
Rose Jardim When I was 50 years old, I cut myself while shaving my legs. And then the cut just didn’t heal. It developed into a deep...
Patient Voice
Jan 16
Patient Voice: Tarya's Story
Tarya Morel Looking back, I’ve had difficulties with shortness of breath for as long as I can remember, but it never really occurred to...
Patient Voice
Jan 16
Mental health in PAH
A webinar hosted by the Pulmonary Hypertension Knowledge Sharing Platform this week talked about a couple of studies on mental health in...
PHA Canada
Oct 31, 2024
Interview with Liss Cairns from Plan Institute - RDSP Awareness Month
💜 RDSP Awareness Month is almost over , but it’s not too late to learn about the benefits of a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)...
PHA Canada
Oct 28, 2024
Traveling with PH: Angele's Family Adventures Across Canada - Blog 4/6
Blog 4/6 - Getting there Guillaume and I love road-tripping! Ever since we met in 2001, we have frequently hit the road in search of...
Angèle Belliveau, Patient
Jul 22, 2024
Traveling with PH: Angele's Family Adventures Across Canada - Blog 3/6
Blog 3/6 - Easter Seals When a family welcomes a child, many will say that "it takes a village"; I would say the same when someone...
Angèle Belliveau, Patient
Jul 18, 2024
Traveling with PH: Angele's Family Adventures Across Canada - Blog 2/6
Blog 2/6 - PLANNING Planning is key, as long ahead as possible. I started in December 2023 for a trip in June 2024, and worked on this...
Angèle Belliveau, Patient
Jul 10, 2024
Traveling with PH: Angele's Family Adventures Across Canada - Blog 1/6
Introduction: Blog 1/6 We are the Belliveau-Thibeault Family from Dieppe, New Brunswick. This year we received an opportunity to fulfill...
Angèle Belliveau, Patient
Jul 2, 2024
How Timely Diagnosis Changed My Life
I was a healthy and fit 59-year-old woman living in Winnipeg, MB, at the start of 2020. Then I started feeling like something was wrong....
Mary Senkiw, Patient, Winnipeg, MB
Jun 19, 2024
Life's Twists and Turns: My Story of Living with PH for Over 40 Years
Hi, my name is Suzanne Martin Wagnell, and I’ve just turned 60 years old in January. My husband and I are both retired and living our...
Suzanne Martin Wagnell, Patient, Larder Lake, ON
Apr 17, 2024
Rare Disease Day Summit Recap: Advocacy, Unity, and the Fight for Equitable Access
Board member Joan Paulin and PHA Canada Ambassador Jennifer Bryson attended the Rare Disease Summit hosted by the Canadian Organization...
Joan Paulin, Caregiver
Apr 3, 2024
Tax Season is here!
Tax season is here! Before filing your taxes, determine which benefits you may be eligible for. Check out the article below to learn...
PHA Canada
Mar 20, 2024
Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World
Our daughter, Georgiana McAlpine, 10, was fortunate to receive a wish from Make-A-Wish Canada this past July! She was diagnosed with PAH...
Selena McAlpine
Mar 7, 2024
Managing life with multiple rare diseases
Lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the body. The most common form of lupus is systemic lupus erythematous (SLE)....
Jas James, Patient, Cobble Hill, BC
Feb 28, 2024
Living with Scleroderma and Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: A Journey of Rare Resilience
Scleroderma and Pulmonary Hypertension Comorbidities, the simultaneous presence of two or more medical conditions in a patient, present...
Isabelle Lynch, Patient, Laval, QC
Feb 28, 2024
Recognizing Black History Month
As we celebrate Black History Month, I think of how far we’ve come and still have to go regarding race. Being a mixed-race child raised...
Brin Marks, Patient, Edmonton, AB
Feb 26, 2024
Third Time's a Charm: Finding My Footing at Canada’s Rare Disease Conference
I have had the privilege of attending multiple Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders (CORD) Conferences over the last few years. It is...
Jennifer Bryson, Patient
Jan 29, 2024
The value of volunteers
On this International Volunteer Day, I am reminded of the incredible support we receive from our community. From our Board of Directors...
CTV News - Ottawa school teacher living with rare Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Click here to watch Jo-Anne Mainwood interview on CTV News Ottawa --------- Jo-Anne Mainwood has been living with Pulmonary Arterial...
CTV News / Jo-Anne Mainwood, Patient, Ottawa
Nov 24, 2023
Jane's Journey: Overcoming PAH and Scleroderma
I suffered from osteoarthritis for many years, or so I was told. I broke bones easily and had two knee replacements, one in 2013 and one...
Jane Macleod, Patient
Oct 29, 2023
Living with Hope: My PAH Journey and the Power of Perseverance
My Husband Ron and I married in 1997. I didn’t know then, but the shortness of breath and fatigue I had been feeling for the previous...
Terri Hamm, Patient
Oct 26, 2023
Surviving the Storm: My Journey with Pulmonary Hypertension and Transplantation
In July 2015, I came down with what I thought was a chest cold that never seemed to get better. I spent the next three months going to my...
Ella MacLeod, Patient
Oct 26, 2023
Getting the Most of Each Day
I first started noticing symptoms approximately seven months after the birth of my second child in 1996. In April 1997, I was diagnosed...
Carolyn Mathur, Patient
Oct 25, 2023
A testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit
In 2016, I was an active 32-year-old. My boyfriend and I were trying to have a baby, and pulmonary hypertension, a disease I had never...
Lea George, Patient
Oct 24, 2023
Ready, Set, Let’s Go!
Having lived with PAH for over 12 years, I vowed never to let it control my life. Our family loves to travel, and I was not about to hold...
Marion Roth, Patient
Aug 17, 2023
One Day, One Breath at a Time: Surviving Adversity
The first time I heard the words, "I think you have Scleroderma and Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension" was in January of 2012 was from my...
Jeannette MacKeen, Patient
Jun 28, 2023
Canada Disability Benefit Act: Advancing Financial Independence for Individuals with Disabilities
Bill C-22, the Canada Disability Benefit Act, has become law, marking a significant milestone for people with disabilities in Canada....
PHA Canada
Jun 28, 2023
Patients at the Boardroom Table: Dr. Sanjay Mehta Interviews Retiring Board Chair Nicole Dempsey
This is a big year, marking 15 years of inspiration with PHA Canada. This week we are honoured to get to celebrate this milestone in...
Nicole Dempsey, Patient
Jun 4, 2023
Adding My Voice as a Parent Caregiver to PHA Canada’s Board of Directors
I applied to join the PHA Canada Board of Directors in 2018 because I wanted to give back to the PH community and contribute towards...
Ed Rathonyi, Caregiver
May 30, 2023
Sonya: Twenty Years and Counting…
Twenty years ago, I first heard the words pulmonary hypertension. An emergency CT scan sent me to the hospital. I was in congestive heart...
Sonya Collins, Patient
May 18, 2023
Born from a Vision: Why I Joined the Other Founders to Start PHA Canada.
15 years. Wow! Has it been that long since the small group of us got together with a vision of starting a national organization in...
Sharon Proudfoot, Patient
May 15, 2023
Patient Voice: Emily's story
Emily's story is featured by Patient Voice * “I was working as a litigator in Toronto when I was diagnosed with chronic thromboembolic...
Emily, Patient
May 2, 2023
End-Of-Life Doulas
There is a rapidly growing end-of-life or death doula movement across Canada. Over the last five years, there has been a significant...
Members of the Death Doula Ontario Network
Feb 27, 2023
My CTEPH Diagnosis
Greetings. My name is Stephen Winter, and I’m from Oakville, Ontario. I want to share my story about chronic thromboembolic pulmonary...
Stephen Winter, Patient
Feb 21, 2023
My Journey to Chronic Illness
My journey to chronic illness has been a long one. My official diagnosis came in 2007, but I’d had signs and symptoms for quite a long...
Nancy Lewis, Patient
Nov 24, 2022
Jas' Life In Purple: 21 years since being diagnosed with PH
The 21st anniversary of my PH diagnosis came, and I had to pinch myself. I started thinking about all the things that happened on the...
Jas James, Patient, Cobble Hill, BC
Nov 21, 2022
Vanda's Travel Blog: Part two
We have now returned from our trip west, unloaded the truck and now trying to relax. That isn’t about to happen with my aging parents and...
Vanda McLean, Patient
Oct 26, 2022
Vanda's Travel Blog: Part One
Summer 2022, and things are opening up after being shut down by the COVID pandemic. Although COVID is certainly not over, more people...
Vanda McLean, Patient
Oct 23, 2022
The Canada Disability Benefit and PH
The Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) was first introduced as Bill C-35, and was originally tabled in June, 2021. Due to the 2021 federal...
Deb McCoy, Patient
Aug 2, 2022
Patient Voice: Esther's story
Esther's story is featured by Patient Voice * “Since I moved to Canada from Trinidad and Tobago, I’ve always been on the go — working,...
Esther, Patient
Jul 12, 2022
My PHighter is Graduating!
Being the mom of an ambitious, artistic dreamer has been a fun journey. From a very young age, Brinley always said, “mom, I want to...
Jessica Marks-Cullum, Caregiver
Jun 27, 2022
What Is Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn?
That any of us survive nine months in the womb is amazing. The level of oxygen available to a developing baby in the uterus is equivalent...
Saeid Maghsoudi, Research
Jun 8, 2022
PH is a full-time job
No matter where you are on your journey, pulmonary hypertension (PH) takes up a lot of time. Between doctors’ visits, the tests they...
Kaitlyn Salonga, Patient
Apr 21, 2022
Want to improve your heart health? Get more sleep.
You have probably always been told to sleep at least eight hours a night, but people with pulmonary hypertension (PH) know that their...
Miriam Bergeret, MSc, Research
Feb 9, 2022
Life In Purple During A Pandemic: A COVID-19 update
By Dr. Sanjay Mehta, MDCM, FRCPC Founding Board Member, Eternal PHriend, Director & Past-Chair, PHA Canada Director, Southwest Ontario PH...
Dr. Sanjay Mehta
Jan 27, 2022
Advancement In PH Research
There has been immense progress in the diagnosis and treatment of PH! Research and clinical trials held around the world, much of it here...
Ashok Pandey, Research
Nov 30, 2021
Being a PH parent: Michael Mayville's story
My name is Michael Mayville, and I live in Toronto with my wife, Nicole. We are the proud parents of two children: Vance, our 8-year-old...
Michael Mayville, Caregiver
Nov 19, 2021
bottom of page