Damion Podridske is riding his bike from Edmonton to Grande Prairie to raise money for his friend's treatment of Lyme disease in Mexico (Photo: Damion Podridske)

By Shaun Penner

Lyme Disease Treatment

Fundraising, awareness the reason behind GP man’s bike ride from Edmonton to Grande Prairie

Sep 20, 2019 | 3:37 PM

A Grande Prairie man will be embarking on a bike ride from Edmonton to Grande Prairie tomorrow to help raise funds and awareness for a close friend, who needs out of country medical treatments.

Damion Podridske will be doing the near 450-kilometre ride for his friend Carley Dorscheid, who is in need of medical treatment for her battle with Lyme disease. The problem is that the treatment that she needs isn’t available in Canada.

Dorscheid was diagnosed with the disease earlier this year and now needs to travel to Mexico to receive the necessary treatment.

With that, the objective became that of not just raising money, but awareness of the need to develop treatments here in Canada

“I just wanted to do something that would catch people’s attention,” said Podridske. “Usually, I like to bike around town and stuff as a hobby, so I figured that would be something that I could slowly do by myself, and I figured that was a good way to catch people’s attention. To explain her story and her situation.”

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Dorscheid has been battling the symptoms of the illness for nearly four years now, though she says her doctors feel that she may have been infected with the disease as a child and the symptoms are just beginning to come to light.

Now that those symptoms are coming through, the issues the mother of two must overcome are wide ranging.

“Some of the first symptoms I experienced were joint pain, general fatigue, muscle fatigue and weakness,” said Dorscheid. “It has now moved into the neurological stages. So, I am dealing with a lot of memory loss… I get lost sometimes when I am driving around or walking.”

She adds that those symptoms can go as far as what is known tick paralysis, where she goes through bouts of not being able to move for a period of time.

Podridske’s goal was to raise $10,000 to help cover Dorscheid’s travel, treatment and accommodation expenses. Dorscheid says the treatment will cost over $20,000.

As of Friday morning, Podridske says he has been able to raise $2,000 on his own through a Go Fund Me page and personal donations, while more has been raised through other fundraising efforts.

Podridske says he will begin his ride in the provincial capital Saturday, then plans to make stops in Whitecourt, Fox Creek and Valleyview along the way. He says he won’t be giving himself a specific date that he wants to reach Grande Prairie. He will also be posting videos and pictures of his journey to his personal Facebook page.

Dorscheid is both grateful to her friend for what he is doing to help her. She is also grateful to those who have donated to their cause.

“I just really wanted to thank everybody for all of their support and for getting the word out,” said Dorscheid. “It’s fantastic, the amount of people we can get talking about it and asking questions, then we can get people aware in Canada and get better testing and better treatments here.”