Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services

Hay River (Oct 28/05) - This year the Hay River Lions Club is trying something a bit different.

Instead of just writing a cheque as a donation, for the month of November the club will be raising awareness about diabetes and trying to collect $10,000 to buy a wound vac for the homecare department.

"We're just trying to get out and raise some money and awareness," said Ron Shaw the president of the club in Hay River.

November is diabetes awareness month. Part of the idea behind the fund raiser is to keep the money for diabetes within the community, Shaw said.

A wound vac accelerates the healing of wounds which is particularly important for diabetics whose wounds heal slowly, said Jennifer Beaulieu, a diabetes educator with Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. The machine works by creating a vacuum over a wound to draw out blood and infection.

A wound vac is portable and weights about five pounds so patients can wear it 24 hours a day.

The machine is also cost-effective, Beaulieu said, because it's less expensive than homecare nurses or a hospital stay.

The hospital currently has two wound vacs, a portable one and a larger unit, but the homecare department that the diabetes team works under doesn't have one.

"We would love one," Beaulieu said.

The Lions Club's goal is to raise $10,000 to go towards the $23,000 wound vac.

The other half of the money for the machine will be supplied by the hospital and members of the community.

The club is using a few methods to raise the funds. In stores around town there will be donation cans and yellow flyers with a lion on that will be sold for $2 and displayed in the store's windows.

In restaurants there will be special placemats with information about Type-2 diabetes. Tabs off of pop cans are also being collected in a number of locations.

"If it works well we might do it every year," said Shaw.