The Thyroid Foundation of Canada/La Fondation canadienne de la Thyroïde, a non-profit registered volunteer organization and charity, was founded in 1980 by Diana Meltzer Abramsky, a thyroid patient from Kingston, Ontario, with the assistance of endocrinologist, Dr. Jack Wall.  She created the very first thyroid foundation for patients in the world. Before 1980 there was no lay organization in the world of its type. TFC has been used as a model to form thyroid foundations in other countries around the world.