living with prostate cancer: 'i’m motivating people to work hard and not give up'
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calgary fitness instructor ron luciuk is an active guy who went backpacking weeks after radiation treatment for prostate cancer.
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ron luciuk says the most important thing he’s done for his health is exercise every single day.
the 64-year-old calgary man has stayed strong through prostate cancer treatment, coming out the other side of an aggressive form of the disease in 2024, thanks to the good care of his oncology team and his own commitment to fortifying his immune system.
as a fitness instructor, he continued to lead his intense metabolic conditioning classes even during radiation. if you’ve tried hiit classes with high intensity intervals, metabolic conditioning is pushing yourself even further, with long, hard intervals and little to no rest in between. “so you’re conditioning your body, you’re doing it as hard as you can and that actually helps your body to adapt and get stronger in terms of energy production,” ron explains. (participants hate the workout but love what it does for them.)
prostate cancer is not a reason to give up physical activity
ron is the kind of leader who practices exactly what he preaches. there’s no reason to ever quit physical activity, despite difficult health challenges. his 91-year-old mom still goes on hiking trips.
“i’m motivating people to work hard and not give up,” he says of his class instructor role that has morphed into inspiration for people with prostate cancer across the country through his fundraising work for the canadian cancer society. september is prostate cancer awareness month.
“that was one thing that i did in my journey is i told people that i had cancer and you know, it’s like, ‘ok, suck it up and try to keep up with the guy with cancer. it’s not the end of the world.’”
many people read about the possible side effects of radiation—diarrhea, stool leakage, rectal pain, abdominal cramps and erectile dysfunction, for example—and they decide to take it easy, but ron says radiation therapy is more like a call to action to stay active.
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“there’s lots of research on exercise and prostate cancer, especially high-intensity exercise, not just walking the dog kind of exercise.”
screening and early detection save lives
prostate cancer is the most common cancer among canadian men (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers). it is the third leading cause of death from cancer in men in canada, and one in every eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. statistics from 2024 show that, on average, 76 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer every day, while 14 men will die each day from prostate cancer.
ron is passionate about promoting screening for early detection and taking action to be as healthy as possible if your prostate-specific antigen (psa) protein levels are high, which flags increased risk for prostate cancer.
“we’re in control of our bodies for the most part and exercise just kept me strong and kept me going. i had daily radiation for three weeks and every day i would exercise. i had to take time off from work to get my radiation, but i didn’t miss my daily classes. it kept me stronger and prevented the side effects of the radiation. i know it helped my recovery, too.”
the healing power of exercise boosts immunity and cancer treatment recovery
where does this incredible physical drive come from?
ron trained in wrestling through high school in saskatchewan, won provincial championships and went on to compete at the junior level at the canada winter games in 1979. he won silver when he was just 18 matched against 20 year olds.
“wrestling is strength and endurance and cardio. it has everything, and all that i learned about athleticism, i carry that on today. i teach my classes with the same intensity as i practiced wrestling back in the ’70s.”
he also loved exercise science and became a pharmacist for the first part of his career. his dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer, so he asked his doctor to start monitoring his psa level in his late 30s. then when he was 52, he decided to go back to school to become an exercise instructor, wanting to have more of an impact on people’s health by getting them hooked on exercise.
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then four years ago, his psa spiked above normal. he had a biopsy that revealed some cancer in his prostate, but nothing significant. he began active surveillance, the wait-and-see approach, under his doctor’s supervision. over the next two years, it rapidly grew to stage 3, spreading outside his prostate gland.
“i suspected i would get it, but you know, you’re still in denial,” he says of his reaction to the cancer diagnosis. because it had spread, surgery wasn’t an option. he was put on a drug to block the production of testosterone, the hormone that prostate cancer needs to grow. it also shrunk some of the tissue, so radiation would be more effective.
he made a plan to clean up his diet by becoming vegan (to remove potentially carcinogenic foods) and exercise harder to get strong before further cancer treatment.
he also credits his wife joan, for her strength and support. her mom died of ovarian cancer and her sister had breast cancer, so she had her ovaries removed and had a prophylactic mastectomy to prevent cancer. “she knew i was strong and wasn’t going to give up,” he adds.
in april 2024, he went through brachytherapy, a surgery that puts radioactive material inside the body. in ron’s case, he had 14 needles inserted into his prostate gland “that zapped the whole gland with a high dose of radiation and then pulled the needles back out. it was a four-hour surgery and the next day i was back exercising with my classes.” while the average joe might shake their head at his determination, ron is convinced his routine was critical to survival.
that may, he went through daily weekday radiation for three weeks around the prostate, bladder and immediate pelvis region. “so it was like everything that they could reach without damaging any of my internal organs or bowels. radiation is the most toxic and inflammatory thing you can do to your body,” he notes, adding he did experience the side effects of temporary bladder and bowel inflammation.
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scariest part of prostate cancer can be loss of bowel control
“the scariest part of all this treatment was not being able to control my bowels, so for two weeks i had maybe four accidents at home. but then i had to go exercise and jump around. i didn’t want to wear a diaper for the rest of my for the rest of my life. so that was horrifying for me.”
as a result, he would be sure to empty his bladder and bowel before leading his class for the hour of exercise. by the third week after radiation, he had more control. by that june, he went backpacking on his own, as he always had, and discovered that digging the potty hole in the ground was no longer urgent. he could take his time and have a coffee back at his tent. “that’s something we take for granted. but when you can’t control it, i mean, that’s devastating. so i thought, ‘wow, i am going to heal up. it will get better’ and it has.”
but prostate cancer, like most cancers, is never really over. ron will be monitored for the rest of his life for psa and testosterone. he knows the cancer could be lying dormant in his bones or somewhere else, so it stays with you, influencing your thoughts and decisions.
“it’s made me more grateful for my family, for my friends, for the healthcare system. through the last couple of years, i’ve raised about $15,000 for prostate cancer, and it’s just that i can help people, by being an example, to help people to overcome it.”
his most important message is one for everyone to follow through on: “if we take care of ourselves with exercise and diet, that will carry on through not just cancer recovery, but other things in life, whether that’s a strained muscle or energy to get up the stairs.”
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