12/10/2005

By JEANNETTE J. LEE  / Associated Press

Four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher, who is in Seattle for seven months of cancer treatment, said she had to sell or find temporary homes for most of her sled dogs after her diagnosis.

"Everyone is spread across Alaska and some are headed to Canada," Butcher said Friday from the hospital.

Butcher, 50, was diagnosed late last week with acute myelogenous leukemia and began chemotherapy on Tuesday.

She said she sometimes feels nauseated and knows there will be days when leaving bed will be impossible. To cope, she writes in a journal, uses a hospital exercise bike whenever she can and plans to plaster the walls of her room with pictures of her two daughters, ages 5 and 10, and her dogs.

"My whole life has been about challenge," Butcher said. "I'm certainly not going to lay down and roll over, that's for sure."

Acute myelogenous leukemia is a cancer of blood-forming tissues of the bone marrow, according to the National Institutes of Health. Complete remission occurs in almost 80 percent of patients.

She plans to return to Alaska and hopes to bring back 60 of the 90 dogs in her kennel. She talked about running the Iditarod "just for fun" in eight years when her older daughter reaches the racing age of 18.

In 1986, Butcher became the second woman to win the grueling 1,100-mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome. She followed up with victories in 1987, '88 and '90 and finished in the top four through 1993.

In 1979, Butcher helped drive the first sled dog team to the 20,320-foot summit of Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America.

Butcher ran her last Iditarod in 1994. Three years ago, when she was considering a comeback, doctors found Butcher had polycythemia vera, a rare disease that causes the bone marrow to produce excess blood cells.

She has stayed in shape, mushing 20 miles and cross-country skiing every day in the weeks leading up to the leukemia diagnosis.

"This illness has totally diminished my athleticism from when I was competing, but I'm still very fit," she said. "It's a huge benefit to be going into this healthy."

The family is looking for a compatible bone marrow donor, said Butcher's husband, David Monson.

"Of course we were all shocked," Monson said. "Now we've wrapped our heads around it and talked to our kids about it."

Butcher said telling her two daughters about her illness was the hardest thing she's ever done.

"There were a lot of tears for all four of us," she said.

Butcher took a brief trip home to Fairbanks on Monday after the diagnosis and went out mushing one last time with a friend.

"I said, 'I'm going to beat this leukemia if I can beat her back to the yard," Butcher said. "I took a different route and beat her."

___

On the Net:

Susan Butcher: http://www.susanbutcher.com