Rebecca Grundy believed in using her voice for change. She’d been working as a government lobbyist for the Progressive Conservative (PC) party in Ontario and as a successful public relations and communications professional. In the latter, she worked on campaigns for Rethink Breast Cancer and lobbied to bring Novocure’s Optune device, a wearable treatment for glioblastoma, to Canada.

In early 2020, as the world dealt with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, 26-year-old Elman Mirzaei faced even more uncertainty. He woke up one morning to two paramedics looking over him, after his girlfriend (now-wife), Esther, noticed him having a seizure in his sleep and called for help. Elman didn’t recall it happening.

In 2017, 24-year-old Laura Thompson was living her dream, having just co-founded a natural skincare company, now known as Three Ships. She’d been having what she thought were minor episodes, where for 10 to 15 seconds she felt a strong disassociation between her mind and her body.