For Huguette White, it had been a reunion 48 years in the making.
When she came through the doors of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation Thursday, her smile beamed as bright as the sunny November day. No matter that she moved on crutches, something that she’d grown accustomed to since cancer claimed her left leg 52 years ago.
“I have so many wonderful memories in this building,” she said. “Memories I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.”
White arrived at OMRF in 1952, a 15-year-old Lebanese girl who at the time spoke no English—only French and Arabic. She suffered from Ewing’s sarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer, and on the advice of her doctors in Lebanon, she and her mother had flown to Oklahoma City to have the limb amputated in an effort to halt the spread of the disease.
“My doctors told me I had only six months to live,” remembers White (who now speaks English fluently).
After surgeons at then-University Hospital amputated the leg, White spent three months in treatment and recovery at OMRF’s research hospital. Despite the language barrier, her physician, Dr. Leonard Eliel, quickly discovered a way to communicate with his young patient.
“Dr. Eliel spoke French, so we could speak,” remembers White, now 68. “And he translated for all of the other staff members.”
White developed a deep bond with many at OMRF, particularly Hugh Payne, the foundation’s first general manager. “Mr. Payne spent countless hours with me, comforting me, keeping a vigil by my bed,” said White. “He spoke in a language that I could not then understand, but it did not matter. His eyes said it all.”
Despite her earlier dire prognosis, White made what doctors then believed was a full recovery, and she returned to Lebanon. However, in 1958, the cancer returned—this time to her lungs—and White once again sought help at OMRF.
“My doctors again told me I probably would not survive,” said White. But OMRF doctors elected to treat her with a then-novel form of chemotherapy. Their efforts proved successful, and White has remained cancer-free in the 48 years since.
White gave birth to a daughter two years later and became a U.S. citizen. She now lives in Arizona, where she has become, surprisingly, something of an icon in the world of ultra-distance running.
Her boyfriend of eight years, Dan Brenden, runs races of up to 300 miles, and White is his one-woman support crew. “Whenever she sees me,” said Brenden, grinning, “she yells, ‘Faster, Dan, Faster!” At the conclusion of each race, Brenden scoops up White—crutches and all—and carries her across the finish line.
White recently decided she’d had enough of watching, so she competed in a three-mile mountain race herself. “She finished in 68 minutes,” said Brenden. “She’s an ultra-runner at heart.”
The pair has traveled as far as the Sahara Desert for Brenden’s races, and this weekend, he will run the inaugural Mother Road 100. The race will start Saturday at 6:00 a.m. at the Round Barn in Arcadia and finish outside of Sapulpa.
White, who moves ably on a pair of crutches emblazoned with flames, will spend all day and night Saturday following Brenden along the course, supplying him with food, drink, changes of clothing and, of course, encouragement. She expects him to carry her across the finish line on Sunday morning around 8:00. “It’s the best part of the race,” she said.
As White toured OMRF Thursday—the first time she’s returned since she left the research hospital in 1948—she said she was sad that she could not share the moment with Hugh Payne, who died in 1964.
“Mr. Payne would be so proud if he could see this foundation today,” she said. And then she smiled. “I just can’t express in words how wonderful it is to be here. It’s like coming home.”
About OMRF:
Celebrating its 60th birthday in 2006, OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and curing human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and cardiovascular disease. It is home to Oklahoma’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences.
