Cancer survivor to paddle channel
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser Staff Writer
KAILUA — The only award Susan Heitzman feels she deserves is the one she's given herself: her good health.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Two years ago, the 59-year-old Kaka'ako woman was diagnosed with breast cancer just months before she and six other women were to participate in the International Va'a Federation World Sprints outrigger canoe race in Bora Bora. The cancer kept Heitzman in Hawai'i with her wig and blood tests and chemotherapy.
Breast cancer survivor Susan Heitzman will paddle with her team in this year's Moloka'i-to-O'ahu race for women.
But it didn't keep her from being there in spirit.
Fast-forward to today, and you'll see a woman in perfect health: tanned, muscular, a head full of blond hair. And she's back in the outrigger canoe, ready to compete on a team with 11 other senior masters women who will brave the 41 miles from Moloka'i to O'ahu in today's Na Wahine O Ke Kai.
This will be her fourth trip across the channel, but her first one since the Big C.
As if the trip across the channel weren't reward enough for beating cancer, on Nov. 1, Heitzman will become only the third Hawai'i woman to receive the Patti Schuler Recognition Award from the American Cancer Society honoring cancer survivors who have remained active volunteers.
"My award is my good health," Heitzman said. "I don't need any other award. I'm so relieved I'm on this side of the treatment. I'm still close enough to it that I get teary, but talking about it helps."
Carole Brooks, who organizes the Patti Schuler Recognition Awards, said the honor recognizes women who are an inspiration, showing others they can outlive their cancer.
What: The Patti Schuler Recognition Award, named after a cancer activist and patient who died in 2000, will be given to Susan Heitzman. When: 6 p.m. Nov. 1 Where: The American Cancer Society’s Boots on the Beach, a western gala with entertainment, country store and silent auction at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Information: Call the American Cancer Society at 595-7544.
"Susan Heitzman did it with a great deal of humility and dignity and zest for life," Brooks said. "She's a young woman who was strong and healthy and sports-minded. She pulled herself together and did what she had to do and went through the treatments.
At a glance
"Now she's back paddling and inspiring others."
Today's canoe race starts at Hale O Lono Harbor on Moloka'i and ends at Duke Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki. It's for women only.
Heitzman's paddling crew is called 'Onipa'a, which means "steadfast," a phrase Queen Lili'uokalani used to encourage her people to stay the course.
It's an apt name for a team of women from Kaua'i, the Big Island, O'ahu and Moloka'i joined by the common goal of making it across the channel in an outrigger canoe.
April marked the first time Heitzman picked up a paddle since the cancer diagnosis, and she did so with trepidation.
"I didn't know I'd be able to paddle, and if I was strong enough," Heitzman said. "But I never had any trouble."
She hadn't planned on doing the Moloka'i Channel challenge, but an opportunity appeared after she paddled during the summer regatta, or short-course, season for Outrigger Canoe Club.
Since then, she has been training with 'Onipa'a — and before that with a private trainer at a gym.
Eighteen months ago, her teammates pinned Heitzman's name to their caps during the regatta in Bora Bora, while she was here having a blood test to see if she could receive her chemotherapy treatment.
They dedicated their race to Heitzman and brought home a gold medal.
Today, she'll be in the canoe doing what she loves — and showing the women of Hawai'i how to survive, even thrive.
"You just do what you have to do," she said.
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
