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http://va.milesplit.us/articles/23977

Lizzie Powell has conquered her battle of heights, now her next battle is cancer
By Brandon Miles / June 7, 2009 10:34 PM

It had been a dream spring junior year for Patrick Henry's Lizzie Powell. Powell had risen to become one of the state's top vaulter with clearances consistently over 12 feet including a state best of 12'7" and state meet record victory of 12'3" to win her first title at the VHSL Group AAA Outdoor State Championships in Newport News. She was taken to her high school prom by the AAA state champion boys' pole vaulter, Deep Run senior Matthew Armentrout. She was just about to celebrate her 17th birthday on Wednesday when on Monday she discovered a lump on her neck in class on Monday morning. Her father, who happens to also be a doctor at St. Mary's Hospital in Henrico County, had her checked out at the hospital on Tuesday and the worst news was revealed on her birthday...she has lymphoma, a form of cancer. Despite learning of the sad news, Powell is in good spirits as the doctors have told her its highly treatable and cureable.

Powell was slated to compete in this past weekend's MileStat.com Elite Track Gala, but instead was present as a spectator to cheer on her fellow club vaulter teammates under coach Val Osipenko. When the top six finishers from the meet were announced and presented their medals, event champion and club teammate Kate Collins of Nelson County gave Powell her first place medal and had her step up onto the podium with her. For virtually all of the spectators, they were unaware of why the girl in street clothes was on the podium, but the meet director presenting the awards was well aware of what was happening at that moment and was strongly touched by the show of camraderie and support that Collins was giving her fellow teammate and friend facing her toughest test up ahead.

Any thoughts and prayers from the Virginia high school track & field community would be appreciated by Lizzie and the Powell family in these trying times for them. For all those who know Lizzie and her family, they are truly great people to be around and deserve our support!

Just a reminder to keep Lizzie in your prayers. She had planned to compete at the World Youth Trials at the end of this month, but is instead undergoing chemo.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/sports ... 08/278459/

Powell meets all challenges head on

Lizzie Powell was told she had cancer on her 17th birthday, less than a week after winning the pole vault in the Group AAA state meet.

By ARTHUR UTLEY

Published: July 7, 2009

Getting to know Lizzie Powell
School: Patrick Henry
Year: Junior
Why she won: Vaulted a state outdoor best 12-6 in a regular-season tri-meet with Douglas Freeman and Mills Godwin. She set a Central Region meet record with a 12-1 (an inch higher than the previous record holder, her sister Annie) at Sports Backers Stadium then established a state Group AAA record by clearing the bar at 12-3 at Todd Stadium in Newport News.
What you didn't know: She also qualified for the state meet in the 300 hurdles.

Patrick Henry pole vaulter Lizzie Powell geared her efforts to clearing 12 feet during the indoor track season.

She didn't get there. Three straight weeks of meets -- Colonial District, Central Region and Group AAA state meet -- Powell topped out at 11-6. That height was good enough for first in the district meet and second to rival Emma DeJarnette of Atlee (who cleared 12-0) in the region and state meets.

Never deterred, Powell, a rising senior, set 13 feet as her goal for the outdoor season.

"The competition is between me and the crossbar, being the best I can and reaching goals," Powell said.

She didn't get to 13 feet either, but no matter, what she accomplished in April and May is why Powell is The Times-Dispatch girls outdoor track athlete of the year.

Her PR occurred in a tri-meet with Douglas Freeman and Mills Godwin. She flew over the bar at a state best 12-6. Powell established a Central Region meet record with a 12-1 vault. The previous record-holder (12-0) just happened to be older sister Annie.

"I was thrilled. It was fun to know I'd broken my sister's record," Powell said. "She was happy for me. She told me if anybody was going to break the record, she wanted it to be me."

A week later, in a duel with DeJarnette, both vaulted 12-1 at the Group AAA meet in Newport News and surpassed the state mark. Powell then cleared 12-3 to set a record and win the title.

She said then, "I've always wanted to win states, and it finally happened. I've worked hard for it."

The goal of going over 13 feet remained with two national meets on her summer schedule.

"I was so pumped and ready for them," Powell said.

She didn't participate in either meet.

One of the happiest times in her life vanished with a doctor's diagnosis less than a week after her state triumph. She was told she had cancer on her 17th birthday.

When Powell went to the St. Mary's Hospital emergency room with her father, a doctor, "I didn't understand what was going on," she said. "I asked my mom if I had cancer. It was one of the scariest things I've ever had in my life. I didn't know what type I had, and if I would survive. I was thinking the worst possible."

Powell has Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph system. It's most common among teenagers and adults 15 to 35 years old.

"I was told it was very curable, and I thought 'God has a plan for me. It's just another hurdle [she also is a very good hurdler] to jump over.' I'll be strong, and I'll get through it."

She has had surgery and is in the middle of four cycles of chemotherapy. She has visited fellow pole vaulters at practice, and she's spent family time on the Outer Banks.

Her parents are with her at the chemo sessions. When she was in the hospital recently, Powell received a telephone call from Jennifer Stuczynski and her coach. Stuczynski is the U.S. record holder and the silver medalist at the Beijing Olympics.

"I wish you could have seen her face," Powell's mother Pat reported via email. "It was the first real smile in a couple of weeks. They chatted for about 20 minutes. They talked about [Lizzie's] illness and went on to 'shop" talk. They ended by telling her they wanted to send her a plane ticket and fly her to their training facility in New York for a week to train with them. [Lizzie] was walking on air."

If everything stays on track, Powell will complete treatments right before school starts in September. Her support system of family, friends and well-wishers is huge.

"They see me living a normal life. They see me as an inspiration. Knowing they are supporting me every step means a lot to me."

that was really great what Jennifer Stuczynski and her coach did by calling her.

Great followup article:

http://www.milesplit.us/articles/34460

Prayers said.

http://www.universalsports.com/news/art ... 76888.html

Beyond the vault: Suhr impacts life of ailing teen
Olympic medalist reaches out to Virginia high school pole vault champ, aids in her cancer recovery
By Joe Battaglia, Universal Sports | Posted: Jun 10, 5:40a ET | Updated: Jun 10, 5:40a ET

Jenn Suhr visits scholastic pole vaulter Lizzie Powell

Last June saw many sleepless nights at the Powell household in Ashland, Virginia.

Just days after winning her first state title in the pole vault, Lizzie Powell was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma. Instead of reveling in her accomplishments and enjoying her 17th birthday, she found herself pondering her future, or if she had one.

"I thought to myself: Will I be able to survive?" Lizzie said. "Do I have a day to live? A week? A month? A year? It felt like everything was slowly crashing down and that all my goals and dreams had gone out the window. For me, cancer was always my biggest fear. I hate the word. My grandma had breast cancer. My grandpa died from melanoma. Being told that I had cancer, I instantly thought that I was going to die."

Pat Powell, Lizzie's mom, naturally feared the worse, and her insomnia brought her to the computer. It was there that she stumbled on some information that proved critical in her daughter's recovery.

"I made the mistake of looking up lymphoma," she recalled. "I read two lines and said that's it. I closed it out and to this day I haven't researched it. After that, I started looking around at track and field stuff. Somehow I got onto Jenn Suhr's website and started reading about her.

"At the end of her story, there was a link to contact Jenn. I sent off a three-line email and asked if Jenn could maybe send Lizzie a note to lift her spirits?"

That night, Rick Suhr, Jenn's husband and coach, checked their email.

"When I first read the email, it was surreal," Rick said. "It was like, how does this girl, this young, this good, become that sick?

"The first thing that popped into my head was how can we help her? I thought about it for 10 minutes and I told Jenn, ‘We have to call this girl soon.'"

The next morning, Lizzie was at the hospital for her first round of chemotherapy. Just when the doctors were about to connect the intravenous line to the Port-a-cath implanted in her chest, Pat Powell's cell phone rang. She answered it and handed the phone to Lizzie.

"Jenn introduced herself and my jaw dropped and eyes nearly popped out of my head," Lizzie said. "An Olympic silver medalist was calling me. It was crazy. I was speechless at first."

So was Jenn.

"It's a hard thing because you don't really know what to say at first or what to talk about," she said. "Rick talked for a while and asked her how she was doing and then went right into pole vault talk, like what poles she was using, what she was jumping, things like that."

At the end of that 20-minute call, Jenn invited Lizzie to train with her and Rick for a week when her treatment was finished.

"That motivated me to want to get over the cancer, the chemo and just move forward," Lizzie said. "When I hung up the phone, I said ‘Alright, get this stuff out of me. I've got things to do.'"

But the treatment was not so simple. Lizzie endured three months of chemotherapy in the summer of 2009 then frequent radiation treatments in the fall. She lost her hair and suffered from intense fatigue and headaches.

Around the same time that Lizzie's ordeal began, Jenn hit a rough patch in her season. An Achilles injury that had been nagging her all spring got progressively worse after her victory at the U.S. Outdoor Championships in Eugene in June. When the injury didn't respond to treatment, she made the difficult decision to forfeit her spot on the national team for the World Championships.

Whenever she felt herself getting down, though, Jenn said she thought about Lizzie.

"You're upset about not being able to compete, but when you talk to Lizzie and her family, you realize it's not even on the same scale," Jenn said. "It put in perspective how lucky I was to just have an Achilles injury and to not have anything else more serious."

Throughout the summer, Jenn and Lizzie remained in close contact, trading frequent emails. Jenn sent a package of training gear for Lizzie to wear, including some articles of clothing from her Beijing Olympic kit. After the treatments ended, Lizzie gradually resumed her life as an athlete. After missing the first competition of the indoor season, she quickly returned to her champion ways, winning all but one indoor competition.

In March, she received another call from Jenn and Rick.

"Rick's son was in wrestling nationals in Virginia," Jenn explained. "It was kind of last minute, but we called Pat and asked if we could come to visit Lizzie. She welcomed us down and we went."

Jenn and Rick met Lizzie and her teammates at Patrick Henry High School. From there, the Powells and Suhrs went to Lizzie's pole vault gym.

"We went to her training facility really with the intention of sitting down for a half hour to watch her jump a little bit and to be encouraging," Rick said. "The next thing you know, Jenn and I were on the runway for two hours with her teaching and coaching."

After that session, Rick stressed that he was serious about his earlier offer to have Lizzie join them in upstate New York to train. The following week was Lizzie's spring break, so she and Pat flew up.

"It was a really neat experience," Rick said. "We're fast-paced Northerners up here and they're traditional Southern folks so it was an interesting mix. It was awesome to have them. Pat is an amazing cook, and Lizzie is an incredibly talented kid."

Jenn and Lizzie continued to forge their bond of friendship during these two trips, and it's hard to tell who has benefited most from the experience.

In her first meet back after training with Jenn, Lizzie broke the Virginia state record, a mark she has since raised twice more to 13-3, the fourth-best effort in the nation this season. On June 5, she captured her second straight Virginia AAA state title, and three days later was named Scholar Athlete of the Year and Comeback Athlete of the Year by the Richmond Times Dispatch.

"Jenn and Rick really impacted my life," Lizzie said. "They helped motivate me to make a comeback and to realize that you can overcome anything. Through the worst time in my life, they gave me such a great thrill."

Lizzie has had an equally significant impact on Rick and Jenn.

"I don't think Jenn and I realized the impact that we could have," Rick said. "We can use that gift to make money, to break records, to have a nice lifestyle, but there is a responsibility to use that gift to impact people in a deep and positive way."

The docs provide the know how, the caretakers (family, loved ones and supportive friends) provide the support, and the patients provide the will. We survivors learn to truly celebrate every birthday! Good for you, Rick and Jenn. Pat and family, I hope you know just how important you were in the treatment of this disease that affects the entire family. Lizzie, I've never met you, but I already know you are one tough cookie! The struggle has strengthened you to go on to great things - pole vaulting is only one of them!!

Thank you all! Appreciate your support! She's doing great.