Giving to end isolation
Sarah Sandusky is a Pain BC board member who first found out about the organization while providing a job reference for a former colleague. While she didn’t know about Pain BC at the time, Sarah was no stranger to the devastating effects chronic pain can have on a person’s quality of life, having lived with pain for nearly a decade.
“Pain can be debilitating even if you can’t see it," Sarah says. "1 in 5 Canadian adults suffer from chronic pain but there are so many different components that it looks and feels different to everyone. At its worst, I couldn’t even lift my own child, but I appeared perfectly normal.”
In addition to providing leadership and expertise on Pain BC’s board, Sarah is a monthly donor. Her lived experience with chronic pain is the driving force behind why she gives. “After a 7-car pile up that caused my injuries, I thought I had to navigate pain all by myself,” she says. “It was challenging, exhausting, frustrating and overwhelming.”
Sarah wishes she had known about Pain BC’s supports for people in pain much earlier in her journey to find effective treatments and coping strategies. "Early intervention can be crucial to achieving wellness and it’s a huge relief to know that Pain BC is here to help," she says.
Monthly donors like Sarah provide much-needed funding for Pain BC initiatives, including support groups for people in pain, programs for people dealing with pain and poverty, provincial and national policy advocacy, and education for health care providers. Find out more about becoming a monthly donor to Pain BC today.
Pain BC’s mission is to enhance the wellbeing of people in pain through empowerment, care, education and innovation. "Pain BC is a small organization that punches above its weight," Sarah says. "And I give monthly because I know firsthand that my donations to Pain BC will directly help people with pain from all walks of life."