Legacy and Planned Giving

“Your mom was such an interesting combination of being spiritual and yet practical. Her faith was profound. She trusted that God would get her through every trial. At the same time she was a realist, insisting on finding the truth in every situation, delighting in the world around her.”
– Rev. Helene Burns
Jegasothy “Lilly” Jesudason moved to Canada in 1966, with her husband and young family. Originally an immigrant of Sri Lanka, she was the primary caregiver at home. Along with the usual (labour intensive) traditional cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, and taking care of the entire family, she shoveled snow, took out the trash, and drove her kids everywhere. In addition to all of the above, she took to woodworking and sewing! She built shelves, backboard for tennis/basketball, sewed school and Halloween outfits for her kids and did substitute teaching as well! We remember how our Mom would awake every morning at 6:30, cook several curries, then get breakfast for us all, clean the entire home, get groceries, run errands and still help us with our homework! Not a day went by that she did not do it all. In her forties, however, this amazing superwoman was in excruciating pain. The same woman, who built a tennis backboard and re-did the downstairs bathroom, now could not even button her blouse.

Over the decades her feet and other parts of her body suffered the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. The medications used to treat this disease also came with severe side effects. Soon she dealt with weight gain/loss, shortness of breath, fatigue, some hair loss, and eventually the arthritis flare ups. Older medication used for treatment lead to lung damage. She was eventually diagnosed with advanced interstitial lung disease. Life was hard, yet Lilly persevered. She took pride in cooking full traditional meals, even for her now adult children, whenever possible, still did groceries and cleaned the entire house daily. However, the disease, in combination with medication side effects, took its toll. She needed help doing the most basic things. She tried at least 8 different kinds of treatments including gold injections, Finally, in her 80’s, she tried a treatment that was intensive, but finally seemed to keep her arthritis at bay. However, by this time her interstitial lung disease and arthritis was so severe that her hands looked like this:

Of her ten fingers only two on each hand were functional. Still she did as much as she could on her own, though dependent on the help of others. Even though her new medication seemed to slow down the effects of arthritis, the interstitial lung disease progressed. Had newer medications, with less side effects, been available earlier, and had she been diagnosed and monitored earlier, she could have maintained her independence and quality of life much longer. She will always be “Mom” to us and to many others. Research into finding ways to treat this horrific and painful disease is so important to keep wonderful people, like our Mom, at their best – independent and productive.

We saw our mom go through excruciating pain and suffer without treatment for many years. We saw her lovely fingers and joints become deformed. It is difficult recognizing the obstacles that people with rheumatoid arthritis go through yet persevere. Today, we realize how our mom’s strength and determination to see a difficult job through to its completion inspires us and everyone she touched in her lifetime. These are great lessons to live by.

If arthritis has touched you or your loved ones the way it has touched ours, we encourage you to make a gift in their honour to the Arthritis Society, or a legacy gift in your will to the Arthritis Society. It’s a gesture of generosity which helps to keep their memory alive.

Perhaps your generosity will give others extra years with their loved ones – and you can’t put a dollar value on that!

If Lilly’s story inspires you please give now for arthritis research!

Download Lily’s story

Dr. Raymond Lam and Alanna Wong remember their sister, Joyce Lam, as head-strong and resilient. These were traits that served her well as she wrestled with arthritis for most of her life.

“She was always a fighter,” says Raymond. “For a lot of her life, Joyce had this condition, but she never let it define her. She always looked to do whatever she wanted despite any physical limitations. That was the type of person she was.”

A grateful fighter, one could say. Joyce, who passed away at age 63 in April 2022 after arthritis had caused severe damage to her heart and lungs, received support from Arthritis Society Canada throughout her life. The Vancouverite left the organization a gift in her Will to help change the future for people impacted by arthritis.

The miracle of medicine

Joyce had a complex condition that presented when she was in university. Initially, she was diagnosed with lupus, and later mixed connective tissue disease. Arthritis, however, was always part of the clinical picture.

Her health deteriorated rapidly in her mid-twenties as the disease attacked her heart and lungs, and she eventually was admitted to an intensive care unit. Raymond, a professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, was away doing his training when this happened. He made an emergency trip home to see her.

“She was on death’s doorstep. Her doctors didn’t think she’d make it,” he recalls.

As Joyce fought for her life, she participated in a clinical trial of a new medication. The results were beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

“She got so much better during that clinical trial. Her heart and lungs stabilized – she was well! It was a miracle,” Raymond says. “Even though the medication showed mixed results overall in the trial, it worked for her. It was one of those unexpected results that can sometimes happen in medicine that no one could have predicted.”

Planting a seed for future generations

Thanks in part to the trial medication and the care of her doctors, Joyce lived more than 30 years longer than expected. She still had arthritis and other medical issues, but she lived well. Throughout those three decades, she relied on Arthritis Society Canada’s support.

When she was diagnosed, Arthritis Society Canada’s B.C. Division shared information about the disease so Joyce could understand what she was facing. The organization taught her how to cope with arthritis, lent her helpful assistive devices and connected her with peer support programs. In return, Joyce volunteered – she took calls on the Arthritis Answers Line, talking people through a new diagnosis and offering a comforting voice of reassurance. The gesture carried extra meaning coming from someone with lived experience.

“Arthritis Society Canada was important to Joyce. It helped her to stay independent,” says Alanna. “That’s why she volunteered, and why she wanted her gift in Will to directly help patients impacted by arthritis access the much-needed support they might not be able to afford themselves.”

Alanna adds that research was of particular interest to Joyce. Because she benefitted greatly from a clinical trial, she promoted research and wanted to help establish new and better treatments.

In 2004, Arthritis Society Canada’s B.C. Division helped to start a fund in Joyce’s name at the Vancouver Foundation. It supports the creation of new programs and services to help reduce pain and disability for people living with the disease. Joyce planned for her estate gift to go directly into the fund, ensuring Arthritis Society Canada would receive quarterly annual income installments from it when she passed.

“Joyce was an incredibly special person,” says Liesl Drayton, Director, Planned Giving, Arthritis Society Canada. “She was passionate about advocating for the six million people in Canada living with arthritis, and this very generous gift will help to ensure her legacy lives on for years. We are deeply grateful.”

As Raymond and Alanna paint a picture of their “spunky and playful” sister, they touch on her love of cycling, her nieces and nephews, her dog and her husband, Tom. They also circle back to her interest in supporting Arthritis Society Canada and dispelling myths around the disease.

“Ordinarily, arthritis is seen as a condition of the older person. Because Joyce was young and vigorous, she could challenge that,” Raymond says. “She was an ambassador for Arthritis Society Canada, but the organization was really good for her, too, in that it offered her a way to give back and help others with the same condition.”