Butcher receives overwhelming support from Alaskans to fight leukemia

Butcher receives overwhelming support from Alaskans to fight leukemia

The four time Iditarod champion, Susan Butcher, who is struggling with leukemia, has managed to get overwhelming support from the community in Alaska.

Her sponsor GCI, who supported her for a longtime, joined hands with the Blood Bank of Alaska for a blood and bone marrow drive across Alaska, even as Butcher, 50, is being treated for cancer in Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Margaret Baker of the Blood Bank of Alaska said: “I just think it's a wonderful show of support for Susan Butcher and also for Michael Donaldson.”

Donaldson is a 30 year old Alaskan who desperately needs a transplant immediately.

Baker added: “I've had phone calls from other locations just saying they're incredibly busy, steady. And people are really enthusiastic to get on the registry.”

Around 50 people are diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in Alaska each year.

Butcher hopes that this initiative will help native Alaskans who would receive bone marrow transplantations in future. She said: “The whole drive is for the Native Alaskans. Right now on this ward I am on, there's four out of eight who are Alaskans, all down here with leukemia.”

As native Alaskans are the least populated ethnic group, Butcher says that some leukemia patients of Alaska have little chances of finding a match which can save their lives.

Blood bank centers participating included those in the Kenai Peninsula, Fairbanks, Anchorage, and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. $32,500 is being donated by GCI that would be sufficient to pay for the first 500 tests.

Butcher who was diagnosed for AML on December 2 added: “When you enter this facility they give you hope. They give you lots of different ways to try and survive your leukemia. They have told me stories of Native Alaskans that have come here and they don't have hope. If you don't have hope, what do you have?”