Life, like the hills of Northwest Connecticut where he’s an avid bicyclist, has had its share of turns for Ben Freund, a 69-year-old retired dairy farmer from East Canaan.
In 2019, while his wife, Debra, was being treated for endometrial cancer, Freund learned that a nagging pain in his left leg was caused by multiple myeloma. Suddenly, the man who was the caregiver for his wife needed someone to take care of him.
“I would go out bicycle riding with groups of guys and I’d fall off to the back immediately,” he recalls. “I’d struggle, but I got home so I didn’t think too much of it.”
Physical therapy didn’t help the pain, but a visit to an orthopaedist did. The orthopaedist read his X-ray and advised him to immediately see an oncologist, who provided the diagnosis. He went to Smilow Cancer Hospital at Torrington, where Debra was also being treated.
In May 2020, his hematologist at Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, Stuart Seropian, MD, professor of medicine (medical oncology and hematology), cleared him for a stem cell transplant. After 11 days in the hospital, Freund came home, recovered well, and was feeling strong. But as he was recovering, his wife relapsed. She went through several rounds of treatment before passing away in February 2023, leaving her husband of 37 years, their two children, three grandchildren, and a community of family and friends. It changed everything for Freund, who had plans of traveling the world with his wife after retiring from farming in 2022.
But then another turn on his journey took place when he was contacted by an old college friend who had stage-four cancer and was making a memory book for her grandchildren.
“The fact that she would choose to remember me in that way inspired me to get back to taking care of myself the best way that I could,” he says. And that meant not being alone. He went online to look for a date and met his fiancée, also named Debra. They are planning an October 2025 wedding near a pond on his farm.
“When I’m talking and I refer to Debra, it gets a little confusing to people who don’t know the whole story,” Freund says.
Debra isn’t the only good thing he found online. While recovering, he joined an online support group for people with multiple myeloma and, for the first time, met others with the disease.
And that led to another turn in his journey – Freund was invited to participate in the International Myeloma Foundation’s 2025 Iceland Cycling Expedition from August 27 – September 2, 2025. He will be among a group of dedicated cyclists taking a unique adventure across Iceland’s breathtaking landscapes while raising critical funds for the foundation’s fight against multiple myeloma. He will join a team of cyclists that will include survivors like himself, doctors, and caregivers – a group of people that he feels are never celebrated enough. As of early May, Freund was the top fundraiser among all the cyclists, having raised over $18,000.
“We’re raising funds and awareness of multiple myeloma, and showing what you can do despite the disease, taking what you have to the maximum,” he says. “Hopefully, I’m going to make it through the stark landscapes of Iceland in good form . . . It’s going to be great fun and we’re going to show the world what we can do.”
Freund is grateful for the treatment he received at Smilow Cancer Hospital and is looking forward to the next turn in his adventure through life.
“I was so fortunate to have a response that was durable. Even today, five years post-transplant, I have literally no pain.”
Here is more information on the IMF Iceland Cycling Expedition.