Honouring Their Child

Voices of Impact
The Erika Legacy Foundation

Since 2021, The Erika Legacy Foundation has been generously supporting a range of innovative mental health research projects through Brain Canada. Their giving is inspired by Erika, who died by suicide in 2015. The unexpected death rocked her family—and galvanized them. In the midst of grief, Erika’s father Bill Elkington and his family launched the foundation to support research into the disease behind suicide, walk alongside families through grief, and connect those struggling with resources to help prevent loss. Bill notes that mental health research often lags behind other diseases. The work is urgent. Suicide is a significant cause of death in Canada, and Bill notes that too many people feel alone with their pain. Bill sees the foundation as just one more of Erika’s significant gifts to the world. “This work honours her, and keeps what she would have provided the world alive: hope and resiliency,” he says. “Erika would have wanted us to try to figure this out.”

If we can put some of the same resources into brain science with a proactive lens, we can make a huge dent in our understanding of mental health and create healthier communities as we go forward.