Iditarod Supermom Fights Leukemia

May 10, 2006 — -- Susan Butcher has won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race -- an 1,100-mile trek across Alaska's frozen tundra -- four times, but the mother of two faces her toughest race yet as she battles a rare and deadly form of leukemia.

And, she's launched an awareness campaign to fight for all people who need bone marrow transplants.

"A friend of mine said, 'Leukemia hasn't met Susan Butcher yet,' and I agree with her," Butcher said. "It's going to have to fight awful hard if it wants to take me."

To visit www.marrow.org, click here.

To visit Susan Butcher's Web site, click here.

Thanks to www.alaska.org for additional video and information on the Iditarod.

Butcher has faced death head-on before -- during a training run, she and her sled got stuck in a frozen creek. She would have died were it not for her faithful dogs.

"I was just trying to hold myself up on the ice until I realized I was losing my strength and I was just going to sink under, and I thought, 'What do I want to do with the last seconds of my life?'" said Butcher, who still raises and trains dogs, even though she gave up racing more than a decade ago.

"And I said, 'Well, I want to look at my dogs.' And I turned, and all seven of them were riveted on me, of course, and I didn't say a word. I didn't even think it. They came over to me, and I grabbed a hold of them and they pulled me out."

Two long braids were Butcher's trademark -- and indeed the face of the Iditarod -- but she has lost her hair to chemotherapy.

"I've always wanted to shave my head so I love this hairlessness," Butcher said.

Her iconic hairstyle may be gone, but her determination remains.

"You look at it face on, and it looks pretty scary. And then that just gives me more of a fighting spirit," she said.

"She is determined," said her husband, David Monson. "She can climb a mountain one step at a time."

Butcher is lucky. She has found an unrelated donor for her bone marrow transplant. She says she's heartsick at the hospital when she's surrounded by others who may not be as lucky.

"What saddens me in this is to think of somebody laying in that ward like I am and being told, 'I'm sorry but we can't find a match for you.'"