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Personal Best: Dieks reflects on work as a paramedic, cycling and cancer journey — ‘It’s a very frustrating cancer’
Sudbury’s Ashley Dieks has been selected for the 2025 Iceland Cycling Expedition, an international crew that will cycle in Iceland from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 to raise critical funds for the International Myeloma Foundation. Supplied
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Balancing training on the bike with her work and other life commitments is the kind of challenge Ashley Dieks is glad to have as she continues her journey living with myeloma.
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She was diagnosed with the aggressive cancer of the bone marrow May 2022.
This ride of her life recently led Dieks to being selected for the 2025 Iceland Cycling Expedition, an international crew that will cycle in Iceland from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 to raise critical funds for the International Myeloma Foundation.
This past fall, through contacts in the myeloma community, Dieks connected with someone who had done the inaugural ride in 2024 and who suggested she apply.
After filing her application and doing two in-person interviews, “they sent me an email saying that out of 100 people, I was chosen — one of 13,” she says.
She has to fundraise $15,000 U.S. dollars.
“It’s a big feat. I’m confident I will get it done.”
It’s a charitable donation with Myeloma Canada or the International Myeloma Foundation. They chose to cycle in Iceland, where there is a research facility whose focus is currently on early detection, she says.
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She will bike alone.
“I thought this was kind of important to do alone. I always get a bit nervous doing things by myself. This is another challenge to step out of my comfort zone and not have a partner or friend to rely on.”
Late 2021 brought early warning signs
In December 2021, the local paramedic was lifting a patient when she felt a pop in her sternum. There was immediate pain. As time went on, so did the pain.
By March 2022, the extent of her injuries and pain, coupled with her youth, struck her family doctor as odd. Ultimately, the tests and consultations led to a bone marrow biopsy on May 16.
On May 18, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
She recalls that awful day: home alone and the doctor was calling. She was then “making a hard phone call to my mother, telling her that I had cancer with a two- to five-year lifespan.”
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She was 36. Her then 15-year paramedic career was put on hold.
Prior to her diagnosis, she was more into bodybuilding and had started cycling.
“I enjoy working out. It’s therapy for me. But I had to pivot. Lifting weights is too risky for fracturing bones. That’s why I chose cycling.”
In 2022, she helped organize the Sudbury Beacon ride for myeloma. She has since joined other charitable rides. Last year, she and her partner were leads for the 2024 Bike to Beat Myeloma event.
They also biked from Sudbury to Montreal for myeloma in June 2024
“I absolutely loved it. I wish we could have continued. When you get on the bike, you start doing 100-kilometre days you just kind of adapt to it. It was a different way to see our province.”
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On Sept. 11, Dieks returned to work, where she is currently a paramedic on modified duties. She would love to get back “on the truck.”
Bumps in the road come November
After a good, solid 10 months of remission, she relapsed in November. Just before Christmas, she started chemo again. She has treatments every other week.
“It’s a lot more manageable. It’s not intrusive to my life. I can still work. (Work has) been very accommodating on those treatment days or those days where I’m feeling off.”
It’s a hard question to answer, she says, about whether the two- to five-year lifespan is still her reality.
Myeloma is like a snowflake, she says. No myeloma is the same. “There’s such a variance.”
She knows people who’ve had the cancer for five years and passed away. Others have been living with it for 10 years.
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“It’s a very frustrating cancer.”
She has been feeling disappointed as she comes to come to terms with the cancer being active again. Physically, she’s in more pain, but she’s still able to ride.
“I have to listen to how I’m feeling. On days where it’s really, really sore, I don’t bike. Then there are days where I feel great and I’ll hop on for an hour, hour and a half.”
Still, she “absolutely” will be riding in Iceland in August and September.
“When I talked to my oncologist, we both agreed that I will go, no matter what.”
Ride the bike, find the joy
Dieks wants people to remember that, despite what’s going on in their lives, everyone needs to lean into the things that bring joy.
“You may get different opinions from different doctors saying no, you shouldn’t be doing this. But you know yourself and what you can do. Just don’t give up on those things that you enjoy. I find a lot of people end up doing (that) and creating that negative spiral.”
Follow her story and regular updates on Instagram: @the_myeloma_chapter.
For more information and to donate to the Iceland Cycling Expedition, visit myeloma.org/ways-give/other-ways-give/iceland-cycling-expedition.
Laura Young’s Personal Best column runs regularly at The Sudbury Star.
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