Nunavut boy collects 20,000 pop can tabs for diabetes pumps

Kaison Holmes, 9, at the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation in Edmonton just before donating his pop can tabs. (FACEBOOK PHOTO)

Cambridge Bay’s Kaison Holmes, bottom right, with help from his family and other members of his community, collected more than 20,000 pop can tabs which he donated to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton where they melt the tabs down to make insulin pumps. Kaison, who has Type 1 diabetes, poses here with his parents, Lynette and Shawn Holmes, along with his older brother Karter and younger sister Eava. (PHOTO BY KELCEY WRIGHT)

Special to Nunatsiaq News

CAMBRIDGE BAY — He likes basketball. He likes video games. And he likes playing with his friends.

On the surface, nine-year-old Kaison Holmes is like any other kid.

But unlike most kids his age, his goals aren’t as simple as winning a game of bump or avoiding predators in a game of tag.

His goal was to collect 20,000 pop can tabs in one year to donate to the Diabetes wing of the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. And he did just that.

“When Kaison gets his mind set one something he latches on hard,” said Lynette Holmes, Kaison’s mother.

The hospital melts down the aluminum tabs and makes them into insulin pumps for people with diabetes. Kaison knows all about those pumps.

When Kaison was three years old, doctors diagnosed him with Type 1 diabetes.

Diabetes is a chronic disease where the body either can’t produce insulin or can’t properly use the insulin it produces.

Because of this, Kaison has an insulin pump on the side of his abdomen which delivers insulin throughout his body 24-hours a day via a catheter under his skin. Basically this pumping device acts as a functioning pancreas.

“The pumps cost about five to seven grand,” said Shawn Holmes, Kaison’s father. “They’re pretty expensive and there’s a lot of people who can’t afford it.”

On top of that, the family needs to buy infusion sets which cost $230, and last only a few months, and syringes at $40 each, along with batteries, testing strips and much more.

“Without the [insulin] pump, Kaison was up to six needles a day on top of his regular 10 finger-pricks,” explained Lynette Holmes, who is a nurse at the Cambridge Bay Health Center.

“It’s changed his entire ability to be a normal kid. When you’re on needles it’s hard to do that.”

That’s why during Kaison’s last medical appointment in Edmonton in December 2013, he came up with a great idea to help others less fortunate them himself.

“I know what it feels like to be a diabetic and I wanted to help other people,” said Kaison, who now, because of the pump, only needs an insulin injection every three days instead of 18 in the same period.

Kaison, the only Type 1 diabetic child in the Kitikmeot region, knows that some children with the same disease can’t enjoy the same freedom that technology has bestowed upon him.

“For children who can’t afford this freedom, they’re stuck eating a very strict diet and a very strict sleeping schedule,” said Lynette Holmes.

This week, Kaison and his mother travelled back to the Stollery hospital and brought an entire suitcase full of pop can tabs to donate for recycling.

“I am certainly proud of him,” said Kaison’s father. “Its coming right from his heart. This is his initiative that he decided to take on all himself.”

But he didn’t have to do it alone: the entire Cambridge Bay community pitched in to help him reach his goal.

A little over a year ago, Kaison’s mother posted his request for pop can tabs on the Cambridge Bay News Facebook page, and explained why her son was doing it and immediately, friends and neighbours started chipping in.

“Everywhere we went in town people were giving up [pop can tabs]. They were dropping them off at my work and at his school. People from other communities were sending them to us with their family members,” she said. “I couldn’t believe the response we got.”

On Jan. 12, Kaison’s mother posted a Facebook photo of her son at the Stollery, just prior to his big donation, to thank the many people who collected the tabs and helped Kaison out.

And now, thanks to a caring young man and a supportive community, another diabetic child may be one step closer to receiving a life-changing piece of technology.

“We just hope this brings more awareness not only for Kaison but for the whole cause,” said Lynette Holmes.