It Didn’t Take Wishes To Make This Girl A Star

Trips to Disneyland. Backstage concert passes. Visits with superstar celebs …

Wishes granted to sick kids by the Wishing Star Foundation usually run along predictable lines.

But nobody ever wished for their own book - until Vanessa Suquet came along.

Not that her offbeat request presented an impossibility. This is Wishing Star, remember, an organization dedicated to making dreams come true for young people who are desperately ill.

For example: A 14-year-old Spokane girl battling lupus had her hospital stay brightened recently with a personal telephone call from John Travolta. The actor vowed to dine with her during his next visit with his sister, who lives in North Idaho.

Vanessa’s wish came true last week. Copies of “Fighting to Live - Too Young to Die,” the story of the Moscow teenager’s struggle with a severe form of leukemia, rolled off the presses.

It happened thanks to Wishing Star, the Arthur Clark Company of Spokane and Jim Kershner, my columnist compadre, who helped with some of the writing. On Sept. 27, Vanessa will be in Spokane for a 7 p.m. autograph session at Auntie’s Bookstore.

I motored through the Palouse the other day to interview the budding author at her home. Actually, I had no choice. Vanessa loudly scuttled my plans to chat via telephone.

“You’re not gonna do this over the phone,” she scolded. “You’ll want to come down here and see me. You’ll love me. I’m very cute.”

She’s all that and more. Vanessa, 17, is a remarkably over-the-top, fast-talking dynamo. She has wide eyes and short wavy blonde hair that is carefully coiffured a la her hero, Marilyn Monroe.

Vanessa’s room is a shrine to the late glamour queen. Marilyn is everywhere, posing from posters, postcards and photographs.

“I’ve always been obsessed with Marilyn Monroe,” says Vanessa, mugging next to a giant close-up of Marilyn’s face that covers the door. “I’m perfect for the role.”

I quickly gathered that becoming the next Ernest Hemingway wasn’t what motivated Vanessa to write a book. Her interests run more to modeling, cheerleading and boys. Lots and lots of boys.

“Ever since I was 2, I walked around telling everybody I was going to be famous,” she adds. “With the looks I have now, I know I can’t be a model.”

So when Wishing Star came calling, Vanessa took it as her chance to jump into the spotlight as well as tell a gripping tale.

It’s all about a girl whose life changed on April 27, 1996.

In the span of hours, Vanessa went from vivacious, athletic beauty to a girl trying to beat the 2-percent odds of survival given her by doctors.

There had been telltale signs for weeks that something wasn’t right. Unexplained bruises. Pain. Fatigue…

Her mom scheduled a doctor’s appointment, but Vanessa never made it. She collapsed in her room and was rushed straight to a hospital.

“They told my mom if I made it through the night it would be a miracle,” says Vanessa.

Her book covers everything in chilling detail. The diagnosis. The chemotherapy. The needles. How her beautiful blonde hair fell out. How her 5-foot-6 model’s body became bloated from steroids.

“Last Halloween I wanted to go out as Uncle Fester,” says Vanessa, laughing. “But I was too sick. I felt like I was 90 years old and pregnant.”

Her cancer in remission, Vanessa is no longer on debilitating heavy chemo treatments. Her hair and figure have come back. She looks terrific, but it’s a bit of an illusion. With her weakened immune system, even a bad cold could make her gravely ill.

Living with cancer has given this teenager a mature appreciation for the things that really matter.

“I want people to read my book and realize there’s more to life than just being the skinniest person,” says Vanessa. “I’m hoping people will pick it up and say, ‘This girl has a lot of spunk!”’

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo