WARNING: "Friends of Children" charity risky to engage with

This post is here for the record, in the hopes that it might turn up in someone's search before they get involved with this charity. I wish I had known what I'm about to share! This agency is, in my experience, not to be trusted.

Their website is here: https://www.friendsofchildren.ca/

My 7 year old son Brett has some health issues we're struggling to get diagnosed. The only proper healthcare for children in my province (British Columbia) is at a hospital in Vancouver. Here in my smaller Northern city there's very little in the way of healthcare services other than the local emergency room. So what generally happens is you get a referral to a specialist in Vancouver, they contact you to make an appointment, and then you figure out how to get there (and back).

We Canadians all pay taxes, quite large taxes I might add, so that we have healthcare for all.... in theory. I've documented for many years how this is actually not the case. I myself have serious health issues that have not been properly diagnosed, let alone treated, and I've essentially given up trying. But for Brett, my wife and I have decided we want him back to 100% full health, which means finding out what the issue is so we can decide what to do about it. Problem is, we need doctors and/or diagnostic tests to get that information, and those things are in short supply. Even though we pay for full healthcare, it's not really there for us when we need it. Those who live away from major city centers really notice this.

My financial situation is lower middle class, if that rings any bells for you. Basically, I bring in enough to pay the bills, and not much else. Inflation is making that tougher all the time, but we continue to manage the best we can. If my health was better I'd be able to work more. My wife is crippled from spinal cancer as a child (along with the radiation and surgeries she was given to get rid of it), leaving her unable to work or drive. We take care of each other, and our 2 beautiful children, but there's nothing left over for vacations, eating out, hobbies, etc. We can't afford insurance on a vehicle ($2000+ per year) so we don't currently own one, walking or using our electric scooter to get groceries and attend local health appointments.

So when Brett suddenly needs to see doctors down in Vancouver (a 22 hour drive from here), it's not just something we can snap our fingers and make happen. It takes a good month of preparation to pull it off, and then a couple months of paying off the bills and dealing with the follow-ups etc. We managed TWO such trips in 2026 (April and July). We had to get some financial help from a charity that is set up for exactly this purpose - helping families pay for medical trips within BC - called "Friends of Children".

Basically, they accept requests, then either approve or deny them, giving you a dollar amount you can spend on your medical trip, and telling you what you can spend it on. When the trip is over, you can submit receipts that qualify based on their rules. For example, they might say you can spend $300 on food and $900 on travel, and when you're back, you can submit up to $300 in food receipts and up to $900 in travel expense receipts. The charity is then paid by their sponsors (private donors and the BC government) and dispenses the funds to the family. In other words, you get a quote, you spend the money, and then you get paid back.

For the second trip, we submitted a request, based on 2 specialist appointments at Children's Hospital which were a few days apart. It was a 6 night stay, at an airport hotel (adequate). I was Brett's medical escort for his first appointment, and his mother was his medical escort for the other one. We had nowhere to leave his little sister while we were out of town, so we had to bring her (at our expense). We bought the 4 plane tickets, filling up our credit card. Our little budget got very stretched, having to pay for everything up front, but we calculated things and decided it would work because we would get reimbursed for part of the food and travel costs. We were quoted $200 for food and $650 for travel.

The trip went alright. We didn't necessarily find the holy grail, but we did rule some things out, and maybe get a lead or two to follow up on. But the real issue was our finances when we got back from the trip. Sadly, the charity didn't come through on their promise. : (

10 days after submitting the receipts, we still hadn't heard back from them, so we emailed. A lady named Sheila (who we later learned is the sole employee) replied saying their finance department was swamped but they'd get back to us within 30 days. After 30 days had passed, we hadn't been reimbused, and our credit card bill was overdue because of it. We contacted them again, and were made to feel like we were trying to scam them. Sheila insinuated that we hadn't really been authorized for $200 and $650 and that we needed to present proof of it. We logged back into their website to get that proof, but found our account had been closed. Luckily, we had been smart enough to take a screenshot of the authorization for $200 and $650, back before the trip!

But that's when Sheila changed her tune. Suddenly, she decided that we had never actually qualified for their services at all, and had been approved only in error. She decided that we would be issued $500 only, and that we should be thankful for it.

Yes, we were thankful for it, but let's get a couple things straight. Sheila didn't earn that money. It was never hers. She runs a charity (if you can even call it that) which gets money from the government and dispenses it to families with children who need to travel for medical appointments. If you look into the publicly-available data on Friends of Children, Sheila gets about 60% of the money for herself! Less than half actually makes it to the families in need. That right there is a major sign of a scam, but that's only what's publicly available! Sheila lied to us several times in just a few emails, and it's clear to us that she's up to no good there. We get the feeling this kind of "glitch" happens to a lot of families. And we think we know where the difference ($350 in our case) ends up!

Anyhow, it took 6 weeks to get reimbursed, even though there was NO reason for any such delay. The money could have been issued the very day the receipts were uploaded, but Sheila chose to hold on to it until the last possible moment, keeping $350 back for no reason.

That $350 may not seem like much to you, but it's a lot to me. Maybe on a typical month, a sudden $350 cost we weren't budgeting on might be something we can recover from. But when things are stretched tight by back-to-back medical trips? Basically, we had to eat less and worse to make up for it. The money had to come from somewhere, and like I said before, we don't have anything for recreation etc. So the $350 had to come out of food.

Thanks, Sheila! Because of your scam - oh wait you claim it's not a scam, you just made a mistake - my family (including my sick little guy) had to go without all the nutrition we needed last month. That wasn't good for our health. You are NOT a friend of the children. At least not my 2 children.

Not cool, Sheila, not cool.

In conclusion, because Sheila (ie "Friends of Children") is secretive and dishonest, I'm not sure exactly what happened. But it's one of these 2 possibilities:

1. They do this all the time, pocket the money, and then if the family complains they're told they should be lucky they got anything. If they try to apply again, their application mysteriously vanishes or is rejected.
2. This was just a one-time mistake - they screwed up and authorized us when they shouldn't have, then took a really long time to finally dispense $350 less than that, and lied several times to explain it, made us feel like we had done something wrong, and then didn't apologize or even acknowledge their error.

Or perhaps, some combination thereof.

My advice is either do not get involved with Friends of Children, or do so only after being fully aware what you may be up against, and protect yourself accordingly.

And if you're thinking of being a donor, why not find a more reputable charity, one that actually gets most of the donations to the intended recipients, not the employee(s)?

Anyhow, back to your regularly-scheduled broadcasting.

DRutter