Tamara Stevens repeatedly beat the odds

More times than she could count, Tamara Jo Stevens was told by doctors she had only a few months or a few weeks to live. And more times than she could count, she beat the odds.

Her fight began in 1972 as a plucky 16-year-old from Burien, determined to beat a devastating diagnosis: acute myelogenous leukemia. Chemotherapy hadn't worked, and she was sinking fast. Doctors were so desperate they opted for a newfangled procedure called a bone-marrow transplant, then a crude, controversial experiment accompanied by a huge amount of radiation.

"She was dying," remembers Dr. E. Donnall Thomas of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who pioneered the new treatment, later winning a Nobel Prize for his work.

"Tamy had a lot of courage," he recalled. "She went into this and was determined to make it work."

With a bone-marrow donation from her brother, she did beat leukemia, becoming Thomas' first long-term bone-marrow-transplant success story. For years, she lived life with a vengeance, skiing, singing, traveling and golfing, and was believed to be the world's longest-lived survivor of a bone-marrow transplant for leukemia. Eventually, though, she succumbed to complications of cancer, which may have been caused by her leukemia treatment.

Mrs. Stevens died Feb. 15 at 2:15 a.m. She was 54. Her friends believe she deliberately waited until after Valentine's Day to spare her husband, Jack Stevens, the love of her life.

She was like that, friends said. "She was the most organized person. If she had a goal, she was going to get there," said her longtime friend, Meridith Tall. "She didn't spend any time feeling sorry for herself."

After she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer in 1996, cells already spreading to her liver, spine, kidney and lungs, bringing another "three weeks to live" warning, Mrs. Stevens began power-walking marathons and half-marathons. About 10 miles out on a freezing day during the Dublin marathon, she stopped to give herself insulin and chemotherapy injections.

"She was made of tough stuff," said Tall, who walked the course with her friend.

Mrs. Stevens graduated from John. F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Burien and Washington State University. A project manager for Boeing for 24 years, she received the Lance Armstrong Carpe Diem Spirit of Survivorship Award in 2002. Last year, she and her husband moved to Goodyear, Ariz. Three weeks before she died, she played nine holes of golf.

In addition to her husband, Jack Stevens, Mrs. Stevens is survived by her children Jeremy Stevens of Springfield, Mo., and Lindsey Stevens of Seattle; her sister, Tara Sorensen, and her mother, JoAnn Stanley, both of Gig Harbor; and her brother, Robert Truxton "Trux" Terkla of Tacoma.

A service will be held at St. Louise Church in Bellevue, Friday at 11 a.m. At Mrs. Stevens' request, friends will host a party at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel on Sunday, from 5-10 p.m. Donations may be made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society or to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com