Saphala

Thank You! Merci Boucoup! Shukriya!

Tuesday 2nd Jun

I finished the challenge, #28th highest fundraiser country wide and #6 highest for Sick Kids hospital. 

I really can’t thank you all enough for helping my vision of a fundraiser come true. I’m sitting here in my “Setting the Pace” sweater, typing this and reflecting, and I feel so full.

Together, we had about 37 donors. I will leave out some names, as some of you did choose to remain Anonymous, so I’ll honour that. 

In my heart, I originally wanted to set my goal to $1,500. But I hadn’t hit that in the past four years of doing this run. In fact, last year after my grandfather passed away, I still ran 66 km… but I couldn’t bring myself to fundraise. I made $0 in 2025. So this year, I dropped that number to $900 to match what I’d raised before, and secretly told myself I’d be happy just rounding my lifetime total to $1,000 so I could say I’d hit “at least 1k” through this platform.

Then the fundraiser took on a life of its own.

A huge thanks to the people who helped me break ground and get those first donations in: Aunty Nadeeza, Pummi Bhua, Billy Massi, Uncle Naresh, one of my church leaders growing up, Gus, my cousins Ananta and Narendra, my old fundraising coach Mark Parkes, my good friend Nikki, and my Uncle Munesh. Because of you, I blew past my initial “internal” goal of $130 and hit my official goal of $900 in the first week.

In week two, we had The Brick’s “match my donation” day. It landed on a Thursday while I was working my usual 9–5, so I did as much fundraising as I could in between everything else… and it worked. Within that day I’d not only hit my stretch goal of $1,500 but leapt all the way to $2,500. A huge thanks to my Uncle Safraz (my highest donor) for a generous contribution of $530 that was matched dollar‑for‑dollar, and to my “big boss,” the CEO of Square One Insurance (second highest donor, $265.83), along with my dad, Uncle Deep, Aunty Ali, one of our Directors of sales and my recent manager, Sunny, and our VP of Sales, Jas. You turned a regular workday into a milestone.

In years past, cold‑calling my own network felt awkward, so I mostly stuck to immediate family and a few friends who saw my journey online. This year, I decided to push myself past my comfort zone and ask in places where I wasn’t 100% sure I’d get a safe answer. I did it anyway—and I was blown away by the response.

By week three, we were already at $3,400—more than double what I originally set out to raise.

In the final stretch, you helped me reach the second‑last badge on my list: $5,000. I did not even see that as an option at the beginning of the month. Thank you to my Uncle/Cousin Ravi, my Aunt Pranita, Gogo Massi, my cousin Veena, Uncle Kol, my cousin‑in‑law Counsel Jemeka, my mother‑in‑law Suzette, and Joan. A big thank you to my childhood friends, too: Saarah, who surprised me with a donation on her honeymoon (hello?! Focus on your honeymoon, my love!), and Abi B., who has watched my journey from when I was little (figuratively, I’ve been the same height since we met it in the 6th grade.)

Thank you to my church family for pushing me over that last hill. The elders at the church I was raised in mean so much to me. Thank you to Don Bartlett, and a huge thank you to Mike Morris, my second‑highest donor and such a grounding force throughout my teen years. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly smile and a confident voice—a voice that makes you feel someone has full faith in you. Mike has been that for me, and for so many youth and adults over the years. He donated $519, the exact amount I needed to cross the $5,000 mark.

With two days left, I realized I wasn’t that far off from the national leadership board.

From there, it was a final little push and you all who answered my call that got me to the top: my Aunt Sonia adding to Uncle Deep’s gift; my cousin Shanaya; another gift from Sunny; my friend Carla (granddaughter of Jumbo Empanadas on Kensington Market, represent); my friend Arnelle, who actually works at SickKids; and my Aunty Cameca from New York. My friend Adam R. who has also been such a consistent force in my life, since I was a teenager. A friend I know I can rely on, always. You all nudged me those last few steps into leadership‑board territory.

A special thank you also to Tristan, who kept me motivated throughout my runs, by encouraging me, and even coming along on a couple of runs! 

I appreciate every single one of you. I’ve left out the names of those who chose to be Anonymous, but please know your donation meant just as much to me.

I hope to be connecting with you all again soon, in different ways—through future runs, little life updates, and the same kind of stubborn hope that carried me through this month.  

This isn’t goodbye, just see you later. Talk very soon.  

With lots of love,  

Saphala

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I hit goal x2… x3!!!!! THANK YOU!

Thursday 14th May Before I even had a chance to thank you for my second goal ($1500) I already hit my third goal ($2500). Share

I HIT GOAL

Thursday 7th May WOW! THANK YOU ALL!!!!!! Share

How Sick Kids Changed My Life

Friday 1st May Hello world... this is my second attempt typing up this blog, the last one took me 30 minutes to an hour, so hopefully there's someone in the world who will actually take the time to read this. 

Here's the story on how Sick Kids changed my life, when I was a child I spent countless nights in pain, requesting my mother to rub my back a specific way.

She would take me to the closest hospital during her free hours, as the parent who took on majority of the responsibility of raising me. With more hours spent in waiting rooms, just to be told that I was experiencing growing pains, when their tests were inconclusive. 

At this point, she decided to take me to Sick Kids hospital, where again I was turned away and told that it was nothing. Then she took me a second time, this time, I was met with a person who heard my complaint and wanted to see what it could be. They assumed it was anxiety, so they sent to me to a specialist at St Michael's hospital, there I was met with questions such as "Do you think you have anxiety?" to which my answer was "I don't know... maybe", his eye's glared at me with inquisitive curiosity. He then looked over my charts, and said "your inflammation marker was quite high during these tests, were you sick at the time?" to which I replied "I'm always a little sick...", well it's safe to say, that finally, someone raised their eye brows at the charts and my corresponding answers, and finally decided to do some more specialized tests. 

There it was, my inflammation marker was 40. When normal is 8-10... 12 is on the high side typically. Share