A Master Carver from the Squamish Nation is gifting a very personal memorial totem pole to Lions Gate Hospital to help raise money for cancer care.

Darren Yelton, whose ancestral name is Knakweltn, is putting the finishing touches on a pole he created in honour of his mother.

Dolores Yelton, 86, died of colon cancer in February 2022, weeks after she was admitted to Lions Gate Hospital.

“The reason why I thought to create this totem pole was through the pain that I witnessed doctors and nurses going through at Lions Gate Hospital that morning I brought my mother there,” Yelton said in an interview.

The artist who has crafted some twenty poles across Metro Vancouver and several around the world said that, despite medical staff being overwhelmed with patients, he was impressed with the care his mother received.

“One doctor literally crying with tears coming down his eyes,” recalled Yelton. “I felt in my heart that something needs to be done.”

Yelton said it was also difficult to see how quickly cancer ravaged his mother’s otherwise healthy body.

“It was very hard for me to accept and watch my Mom dwindle away the way she did in six weeks from cancer so it’s such a horrible disease, we need to find that cure for cancer,” Yelton told Global News. “It just pushed me towards creating a wonderful totem pole for my mother and all people who die from cancer.”

Yelton said the six-foot or just under two-metre base of the old-growth red cedar art will have room for at least 2,000 memorial name plaques.

To honour loved ones who’ve succumbed to cancer, the public can purchase a plaque for $250, with 80 per cent of that cost donated to the cancer clinic at Lions Gate Hospital.

Yelton, who hopes his gift will raise half a million dollars, said he will stand the memorial pole on June 15, ahead of a ceremony to place it in front of the Paul Myers acute care tower on June 27.

“When their names are put on the memorial totem pole, it’ll give their families an area to go rest and you know, sit in front of the hospital and look at a beautiful sculpture that was made in memory of a loved one that they lost to cancer,” said Yelton.