When Diana Tymofichuk was evacuated from her small community in the Northwest Territories during a wildfire, it didn’t just temporarily take her to Alberta – it changed her career path. After days of driving, she made it to Red Deer, where she spent weeks worrying about the first responders working to protect her hometown.

“Many of my friends are nurses, volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance drivers who stayed behind and were trapped in town – the road was closed, there was no electricity or communications,” she says. “I felt so helpless.”

Tymofichuk took that feeling and put it into action, researching careers that would allow her to give back to the people who risked their lives for their community. 

Coming back to school as a mature student, she was interested in a career in health and wellness. When she found massage therapy, she knew she’d found the right fit. 

“The Massage Therapy program is so much more health-care adjacent than I thought it was going to be,” says Tymofichuk. "There are lots of physiotherapy and rehab aspects to it that I didn't realize before." And because of that knowledge, she says, she's learning how to help people with their specific conditions, and also learning which other types of health-care practitioners to recommend for the issues she can’t treat herself.

She hasn’t graduated yet, but she’s already giving back through the program's annual Massage for a Cause event, which invites Edmonton’s first responders to get free massages from MacEwan Massage Therapy students. The event first launched in 2015, and over the past decade more than 300 students have provided approximately 900 massages to local police, fire, EMS and military first responders. This year, 78 massages will be given by 26 current students.

Tymofichuk says that even that simple act of self care is beneficial.

“Massage therapy is a physical manipulation of the tissues, but also affects your parasympathetic nervous system,” she explains. “Self care is going to improve your life and your ability to save people's lives – there's just no negative that comes from massage therapy. It’s a really important part of taking care of ourselves.”

After graduation this spring, Tymofichuk aims to return home to deliver those services to the people who inspired her to pursue massage in the first place, and one day develop a mobile business to help northern communities. 

“I love those people and I want to provide them with wellness,” she says. “First responders are so important. They’re always there for everybody else – putting themselves in danger to help other people. They don't get enough recognition or appreciation.”