Butcher says she will conquer leukemia

CHAMPION: Iditarod winner plans to mush again, see daughters grow up.

By DOUG O'HARRA

Anchorage Daily News

Published: December 10, 2005

Last Modified: December 10, 2005 at 02:35 AM

With the single-minded focus she once applied to winning 1,100-mile sled dog races, four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher has launched a seven-month campaign to beat her leukemia and an associated blood disease.

"My whole life has been about challenges -- I love challenges," she said Friday.

"I've had the odds against me before and come through it. I'm totally goal-oriented. I'm a positive thinker, and I don't know the word 'quit.' "

Butcher has begun her first course of chemotherapy at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and will need a bone marrow transplant after her leukemia goes into remission next year.

She spoke to Alaska reporters in a phone interview from a hospital room in Seattle.

"If everything goes perfectly, it's a seven-month ordeal," she said. "I'll be cured."

Last week, the 50-year-old retired musher was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, a potentially fatal cancer that attacks the blood and bone marrow. For the previous three years, Butcher had been undergoing treatment for polycythemia vera, a rare bone marrow disorder that causes overproduction of blood cells.

In some cases, abnormal cells may start to grow uncontrollably in the bone marrow, leading to leukemia. Recent blood results had spurred Butcher and her husband, Dave Monson, to go to Seattle last week for a special test. The diagnosis that the disorder had triggered leukemia in Butcher was confirmed Friday.

With both diseases present, "there is only one route to a cure," Butcher said. "Although I'm getting chemotherapy now to get (the leukemia) into remission, I must get a bone marrow transplant."

The most difficult moment so far came last weekend, when she and Monson returned to Fairbanks to explain the situation to their daughters, 10-year-old Tekla and 5-year-old Chisana, Butcher said.

"It's just very hard," she said. "You just have to be completely honest, and you have to tell them what's going on. There were a lot of tears for all four of us. But my girls make me pale by comparison. They're amazing human beings, and they can handle whatever comes out of it."

With meticulously trained dogs and a fierce drive to win, Butcher dominated the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the 1980s, becoming one of the most famous sportswomen in the country. She was the first of only two mushers and the only woman to win three races in a row, in 1986, 1987 and 1988. Her fourth win came in 1990.

Butcher gradually changed her focus to work as a TV commentator and an inspirational speaker. After the births of her daughters, she devoted much of her energy to parenthood.

About three years ago, just as she was considering a return to competitive mushing, Butcher was diagnosed with polycythemia vera and began treatment. When her doctors looked at older blood work-ups, they concluded she might have been ill as long ago as 1991, Butcher said.

Even as she got sick, she continued physical conditioning and kept training dogs -- elements that will now help her endure grueling chemotherapy over the next months, she said.

Last Monday, just before leaving for Seattle, she took a team of puppies for one last two-mile training run. A friend mushed a team of older dogs.

Along the trail, they began to race, and Butcher veered off on a short cut.

"I kind of said, 'I'm going to beat this leukemia if I can beat her back,' and I beat her back," Butcher said.

Since then, she and Monson have been scrambling to work out logistics for an extended stay in Seattle, and to find homes for some of their 90 dogs.

The couple's two daughters remain in Fairbanks, where Tekla will perform in a Christmas production of the Nutcracker. The girls will join their parents in Seattle and possibly go to school at the hospital complex.

Butcher has medical insurance, Monson said. Friends have offered the use of a house and a car. But finances will be tight as they cover insurance deductibles and living expenses, maintain two households, travel to and from Alaska, all while not working for at least six months.

Though finding a compatible donor for bone marrow can be difficult, Butcher said her doctors have told her she has a fairly good chance. In the meantime, the couple saw Butcher's plight as a way to publicize the need for potential donors and inspire many people to get tested, Monson said.

"Out of bad things come some good," he said. "This is such a great opportunity. We don't get a chance to save people's lives very often."

If things go well, Butcher said, she's looking forward to mushing again, possibly even tackling the Yukon Quest and other wilderness races.

But finishing her journey as mother of Tekla and Chisana remains the priority.

"I want to be with them as they grow up, and I want to be with them as they get married, and I want to be with them when they have kids," Butcher said. "That's everything to me."

Daily News reporter Doug O'Harra can be reached at do'harra@adn.com.