Team Palmer Power raising funds for the Diabetes research

Jeff Green | Mar 30, 2022

11-year old Quinn and 9 year old Kieran Palmer are “sports fanatics” according to their mother Jennifer. Between them, the two Harrowsmith Public School students play hockey, volleyball, basketball, and football, take part in power skating, and track, hike and biking.

Their parents Kyle and Jennifer spend a lot of time during the week and weekends watching them play, and driving them around the countryside and into Kingston. And like all other parents they watch their children play with interest, except they have a bit of a different focus when watching their kids play. In addition to looking at how their children are developing sports skill, they also look for signs of fluctuating blood sugar levels.

Both Quinn and Kieran have Type 1 Diabetes (TD1). Kieran was diagnosed 7 years ago, when he was 2. Quinn, who was 4 at that time, only started developing symptoms last fall, and was diagnosed in October when he was 10.

“Kieran has grown up with Diabetes, and doesn’t remember life without this disease, and it has been hard on Quinn because he lived a different life before October,” said their mom Jennifer, “it is a major adjustment for him.”

Jennifer and Kyle Palmer both work as itinerant special education teachers with the Limestone Board, Jennifer in the Centreville, Odessa and Newburgh schools in Loyalist Township, and Kyle at Granite Ridge and Land O'Lakes in Central Frontenac.

Jennifer remembers that a few months before Kieran was diagnosed, a school colleague's child, who was also 2 years old, was diagnosed.

“He took some time off from teaching and when I talked to him about what his family was going through, I thought I could never handle something like that. A few months later, when the same thing happened to Kieran I had to live the same reality,” Jennifer recalls.

When Kieran was young, he was not able to communicate, or even be aware, when he was experiencing low or high blood sugar symptoms. That made things doubly difficult for the Palmer family, who were still new to TD1 at the time.

“I remember bringing Kieran to a birthday party at Playtrium in Kingston when he was 3. I was still learning how to count carbs. There was cake and Pizza and all sorts of activities, and all Kieran wanted to do was be a 3-year-old and eat and run and play and I was worried and wanting to test all the time. It was a nightmare trying to monitor what was going on with him. He ended up having a meltdown and I ended up having a meltdown ... I remember feeling helpless, a lot. As a parent, you want to be able to fix things for your children, but there is no fixing this. It isn't like that.”

There have been significant advances in treatment since Kieran was a young child. When Kieran was a toddler, he needed to have his finger pricked constantly to test his sugar levels, but fortunately that all changed with the development of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) that can be linked to an insulin pump.

Kieran, and now Quinn as well, are monitored at regular intervals and the insulin pump that they wear administers insulin as needed. When they are at school, an educational assistant receives notifications automatically when necessary, as do Jennifer and Kyle on their cellphones.

“CGMs have really been a game changer. We still need to monitor ourselves, technology has its limits, but it has made a huge difference for the boys and for us throughout the day. Kieran had his finger pricked so often for the first six years that his fingers began to be calloused. Quinn has had none of that,” said Jennifer.

CGMs are not accessible for everyone, however. The Palmer’s have coverage through their health benefits package, and the Ontario government recently announced coverage for certain populations in the province, but there is still work to be done to allow equal access for everyone living with TD1.

But she said that one thing that has not changed is the constant stress of diabetes.

“There are no vacations, there is no such thing as taking a break and relaxing completely. It is a disease that needs to be monitored very carefully 24/7. If not, the consequences could be life threatening,” she said.

Just before the onset of COVID-19, the Palmer's were planning a major family trip. Kyle and Jennifer were taking the 2020-2021 school year off and they were going to do some travelling. None of that happened of course, but with both parents at home, Kieran and Quinn were homeschooled for the school year.

“We bought kayaks, we bought bikes, and we did a bit of a staycation that year. We did the Frontenac Challenge, everything to keep the boys active. They love sports of all kinds, but they missed organised sports and they missed their friends because they are also very social,” she said

In September of 2021, the whole family was ready to get back to school, and back to hockey and other sports. When Quinn was diagnosed in October it was devastating for him, and for the family as well.

“It is not an easy thing for him to accept. As a family, everything has changed again.”

Aside from dealing with the immediate future, there is some hope for a change in treatment that will have more dramatic implications than even the CGM has had for people with Type 1 diabetes.

The next hope for treatment is a stem cell implant that replaces the function of the pancreas to trigger the body to create and release insulin when needed. This experimental treatment has proven to be effective in human trials, but the drugs that are required so the host body does not reject the implant have major immune-suppressant and other side effects at this time.

“If they can develop this treatment to the point where drugs are not needed to stop the body from rejecting the implant, it will be what they call a functional cure. This is what we all want, but it takes time and money,” said Jennifer.

That's where fundraising comes in.

Not long after Kieran's diagnosis, the Palmer's attended a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) event in Kingston, and they have been involved with JDRF ever since.

JDRF is a global charitable organization funding TD1 research. JDRF's vision is to achieve a world without T1D, with a mission to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent and treat T1D and its complications.

JDRF was founded in the United States in 1970 and the Canadian chapter was started up in 1974

Kieran became a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) ambassador for five years and Quinn is also an ambassador. The Palmer's have participated in the JDRF Walk for the Cure every year since then, with the exception of 2020 because of COVID.

This week, the Palmers are one of 100 families in Canada who were chosen to help mark the 100th anniversary of the first insulin injection. On January 23rd, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson was the first person to be injected with insulin, which was developed by Canadian Researchers Banting and Best. Insulin, “Canada's gift to the world” transformed Type 1 Diabetes from a fatal disease to a treatable condition.

In 1990, Peter Oliver, who had a 6-year-old daughter with TD1, was so desperate about the need to raise awareness and funding for research, that he climbed to the top of a flagpole and camped out there to draw attention to the need.

This month, as JDRF celebrates 100 years since the first insulin injection, 5 JDRF volunteers, including 2 in Toronto and one in Montreal, will be taking the flagpole challenge and will spend 100 hours atop a pole. In addition, 100 JDRF Ambassadors from across the country will camp out this weekend to raise funds.

Team Palmer Power is one of the ambassador teams.

“Our plan is to camp in our backyard on Saturday night, as long as the weather co-operates,” said Jennifer.

To sponsor Team Palmer Power, click here