A super-talented Kwantlen Polytechnic University student of mine is helping his friend establish The Canadian Arachnoid Cyst Foundation. From its GoFundMe website:

We are raising money to build the Canadian Arachnoid Cyst Foundation. The Foundation has three main goals:

• To establish a support group to assist in the daily affliction of living with an arachnoid cyst, where moral support, advice, and personal relationships are offered;
• To accept donations and issue grants to assist in the financial burden of living with an arachnoid cyst, to help cover medication  and/or surgery costs;
• To raise awareness within the Canadian medical community of the problems that arachnoid cysts do indeed cause.

Surprisingly little is known about arachnoid cysts, and doctors have, for the great majority, been educated that these are ‘asymptomatic’, and do not cause problems. Despite the overwhelming number of people with arachnoid cysts which are dismissed as an ‘incidental finding’ on MRI or CT scan, they all seem to present the same issues, symptoms, and affliction – depending on the area of the brain these cysts sit on, one or more functions of the brain can become impaired. …

Many people get turned away from the ER, told that they are or will be fine, go on to have many many more problems, and it is the Foundation’s mission to save people with arachnoid cysts years and years of needless suffering by having patients properly treated and attended to in a dignified manner. …

What we are looking for to get started is not much. Our budget includes our cost to get started, pay for the smallest amount of legal help we can, help the Foundation become a legal entity, and get started gathering donations and grants, so that we may issue help to people who are badly in need, and otherwise unable to get the assistance they need, in the time frame they need it.