Lupus Ontario chosen by 100 Women Who Care Burlington; gift of $10,000+

The big-hearted and always smiling Lisa Bilodeau walks with knee braces, uses a cane and limps.

Diagnosed with lupus eight years ago, the chronic auto-immune disease has impacted her heart, lungs, skin and energy level among many other ways. 

Preparing for Monday night’s 100+ Women Who Care Meeting, held at the Burlington Golf and Country Club, takes a lot of energy, and she finds herself extremely tired.

Emotionally sharing her story, Bilodeau bravely said that while the more than 110 members see her in one light at each of the group’s four events a year that she facilitates, she has to rest in days up to the event, and afterward, so her body does not rebel. 

“Brain fog and extreme fatigue are very key realities of my life,” she said. “The rest of the time I’m communicating with you virtually, I’m doing it from the comfort of my bed.”

Her plea resulted in a win for Lupus Ontario, the organization that she volunteers for, and that serves Burlington residents too. The charity was selected as that evening’s winner, receiving some $10,000 or more, final figures weren’t yet tallied.

The voluntary organization improves the lives of people living with lupus, including providing support for patients and their caregivers. It receives no government funds.

Funding will help Lupus Ontario Anne Matheson Biobank be developed to be a place of research to find answers and for doctors to find ways to a better diagnosis.

Lupus diagnosis typically takes six years, as there are a multitude of symptoms or markers, and requires  five or six physicians to receive a diagnosis.

“At one point I was seeing 14 doctors or care practitioners,” she said, noting she has four auto-immune diseases, with Lupus being the primary.

Shockingly, 90 per cent of those diagnosed with Lupus are women of child-bearing age.

“The diagnosis of this unrelenting disease of lupus changed the course of my life,” she said. “At first I was just trying to survive and have my body stop trying to attack me.”

With incredible doctors and rounds of medication and treatments, she got better and she started to find purpose again through volunteering and philanthropy. She joined Lupus Ontario and recently became vice-president, adding she remains grateful that she can do so virtually to accommodate her disabilities.

Autoimmunity is one of the most common disease categories, ahead of cancer and heart-disease, she said. Wearing her bright purple T-shirt, Bilodeau said the timing is relevant as May is Lupus Awareness Month with May 10 being Lupus Awareness day in Ontario.

Meanwhile, Meaghan Richardson presented on behalf of Food For Life, which serves Halton and Hamilton, serving people and families who need, but can’t afford, fresh nutritious food.

She said they are finding a huge increase in the need for food, receiving 20 new household requests each week.

Their market allows families to shop and bring home $120 to $150 worth of food each week.

“This helps so they can afford medication and people can send their kids to school for pizza day,” said Richardson, who said they have 550 volunteers.

Also presenting was Halton Learning Foundation’s Marc Clare, who shared the impact of the organization that helps Halton District School Board students who have financial barriers to learning success. He said the demand this year is huge and there’s been more than 600 requests this year with another six months to go.

Burlington Central Principal Trish Clark said the school was able to help a student who was living with his mom and brothers in a shelter with just a kettle and a microwave. They were able to provide a $250 gift card to Walmart so that the family could buy some groceries.

100WWCB meets for about one hour, four times a year, when three registered charities that serve Burlington or Halton are nominated. Each group makes a short presentation outlining how they would use funds. Members then vote to determine who will receive the pool of donations from the membership for that quarter.

Each member makes a tax-deductible donation of $100 (or $50 for those under 30) to the charity of choice. The goal of the Burlington group is to collectively generate a minimum of $40,000 annually for local charitable initiatives.