SEATTLE, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Four-time Iditarod sled-dog champion, Susan Butcher, has died from leukemia in at Seattle hospital at the age of 51.
Butcher died Saturday after a 1 1/2 year battle with the disease, the Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday.
"Today is a very sad day for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, for all Alaskans, and for every person who has been touched by Susan Butcher," the Iditarod posted on its Web site.
The mother of two young daughters received a bone-marrow transplant May 16 when her cancer was in remission, but the immune system from the transplant began attacking her organs, her doctors told the News.
Butcher was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in December 2005. She underwent chemotherapy before the transplant.
Butcher, who grew up in Boston, became the second woman to win the Iditarod race in 1986, and in 1990 became the second four-time winner.
In 1979, she helped drive the first sled-dog team up 20,320 feet to the top Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America.
Her husband, Dave Monson, successfully competed with Butcher in almost every major sled-dog race in the world.
