Wonder Woman might try to use the power in her magic cuffs to ward off cancer, but when she wears her suit, there is no disease.
Bodybuilder Susan Stone, 38, has skin cancer. She uses natural and spiritual healing, herbs and nutrition. The Mukilteo woman spends time in a special sauna in her garage, breathing air from an ozone machine and dabbing cream on dozens of ugly spots spreading from head to toe.
The ones on the bottom of her feet are very painful, she said.
Life goes on, even with no medical insurance, because of Cameron, her 9-year-old son, who is the center of her world. She found out in 2000 that she had melanoma after spotting a small mole with a black dot on her leg. She underwent surgeries and seemed fine, but it reappeared in 2004.
When tumors showed up on the back of her head, Stone sought out any and every known therapy, and dramatically changed her diet and lifestyle.
Her Wonder Woman persona was born four years ago on Halloween. Something magical happened when she donned the homemade costume. Pulling up the boots and attaching the crown, she underwent a transformation.
Stone wasn’t overwhelmed with worries about the cancer.
“I can’t be bummed out in the outfit, thinking about cancer,” Stone said. “It makes people laugh and smile. Kids love it. You can’t be focused on dying.”
She has worn it to the doctor’s office, in parades and to birthday parties. Stone packed the suit in February when she went to Mexico to undergo an alternative treatment called microdose chemotherapy. Stone said the treatments are working, but she will need another visit to Mexico this summer, at a cost of about $12,000.
“The weeks in Mexico were the most peaceful time of my adult life,” Stone said. “Aside from getting my arms and fingers poked multiple times each day, then getting a catheter installed in my chest, and the constant treatments, I was treated better than ever.”
She made good friends while undergoing therapy, including other patients from Australia, Canada, South Africa and Sweden.
“Most of us had financial challenges, but we rarely talked about it,” Stone said. “We kept things light and did what we could to feel good.”
Friends help pay Stone’s medical expenses. Anyone may make a donation to the Susan Stone Medical Fund at any Bank of America branch.
A friend, Karla Matista, set up the account. Matista is new to Mukilteo and was impressed with the welcoming community. Stone was one of the people who made them feel at home.
“We moved here last summer and were welcomed by neighbors, parades, the lighthouse festival and many other long-standing traditions in one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen,” Matista said.
She said Stone is well known in Mukilteo for her Wonder Woman persona.
“She has volunteered to march in countless parades, including the torchlight parade at Seafair, and shows up in schools,” Matista said. “She does it to make us smile, lift our spirits, and all without asking for anything in return.”
Stone, who has won bodybuilding competitions around the Northwest, said she takes on her Wonder Woman character even before she puts on the suit. She becomes impervious to the daily grind and offers the world a face of strength. She hopes to earn money by writing a book about her life, and is willing to speak to groups about her approach to treating cancer.
Last year, her son’s teacher gave her a magnet that reads “To the world you may be only one person, but to one person, you may be the world.”
Stone said she knows she is the world to Cameron, which makes it more urgent to find ways to pay her bills and get well.
If only the fantasy suit could really cure cancer.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@ heraldnet.com.
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