Local paramedics join others to cycle to Ottawa

Halton paramedic Ian Sudlow used to think cycling 25 kilometres from his Burlington home to work in Oakville was gruelling enough, but now he’s passionate about cycling 600 kilometres through back roads to Ottawa with fellow Ontario EMS workers.

The Tour Paramedic Ride’s new Stoney Creek-to-Toronto leg has 67 medics from all over Ontario joining other paramedic cyclists in Toronto to make up a contingent of 160 riding to Ottawa. The new stretch was added to the usual four-day ride this year to make it five days for the tour’s fifth anniversary.

“This is a new adventure,” Sudlow said.

His wife, Cathy Fleischmann, will be at the starting point with others Thursday at 9 a.m. to see the cyclists off at the ambulance station at 415 Arvin Ave. in Stoney Creek.

The ride is in support of the Canadian Paramedic Memorial Foundation, which is fundraising to construct a monument in Ottawa for ambulance attendants who lost their lives in the line of duty.

The names on it will include that of Burlington’s Chris Snowball, a medic killed along with three others in a 2013 ORNGE air ambulance crash in northern Ontario

There have been 39 Canadian deaths, including military paramedics, on duty since 1988, Sudlow says.

Sudlow, who will be joined by 10 other Halton paramedics and 10 to 12 from Hamilton on the cycling tour, has been training three to four times a week since April. This is his third year on the tour.

“The biggest challenge is some of the hills and the winds. Last year, we ran into a strong east wind in the hills from Toronto to Port Hope.”

Last year, Sudlow raised just under $1,000 for the cause, for which he says will take a few years yet to accumulate the required funds.

Several paramedic rides are held each year across Canada to raise money for the monument.

On Monday, the Ontario group will join riders from Quebec City in Gatineau, Que., across the river from Ottawa, to be 300-cyclists strong on Parliament Hill, where the ride ends.

More at paramedicride.ca or paramedicmemorial.ca