'When I can't communicate, that's the time for me to check out,' memoir tells journalist's journey with MAID

Diane Sims has already written her own obituary.

The journalist, originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., has been told she was going to die since she was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) as a teenager.

That diagnosis didn't stop her from pursuing a career in journalism, working at the Manitoulin Expositor, which she calls the "best newspaper in the universe," in the 1980s, while also freelancing for other newspapers, including the Toronto Star, and contributing to the CBC.

Sims is now 66, and said the disease has taken its toll.

"I have been in a wheelchair for about 14 years," she said. "I have very little freedom. I can't do anything for myself."

In her new memoir, Living Beyond the Shadow, she writes about her decision to pursue medical assistance in dying (MAID).

It's a decision Sims said she made during the COVID-19 pandemic when a doctor, again, told her she didn't have long to live.

"I was told I had three months to live because I have a dying colon," Sims said.

Although that did not come to pass, Sims said she doesn't want to end up living in a long-term care home once her health deteriorates.

"We all saw what happened with COVID and I did not want to put Dennis [her husband] through making that decision to put me into a long-term care facility," she said.

Sims refers to her voice as "monotone" because of her MS and said once she loses the ability to talk and use her hands, she'll pursue MAID.

"I'm a communicator, and when I can't communicate, that's the time for me to check out," she said.

Her husband, Dennis Thomas, said it was difficult when she first told him she was considering MAID.

"But then I understood what she was talking about," Thomas said.