Powhatan County has its own super hero: Captain Cure, who was nearing the end of his life as a large stuffed Dalmatian, was rescued from a pile of discards by Francis Crutchfield several years ago. With a little TLC, a microbe of Kryptonite and a lot of creativity, the refugee from the refuse heap became the central character in “The Adventures of Captain Cure,” an award-winning children’s book authored by Mrs. Crutchfield.

Francis Crutchfield, who holds a Masters Degree in Theatre Arts —“I always wanted to be an actress,” she confessed, “but I’ve always been a writer,”— has been a wordsmith “since I was seven.”

She vicariously fills her desire to tread the boards as the Forensics Coach at Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Academy, a position she has held since 1983. But it was the impact of cancer on her life and her commitment to be an advocate for a cure and research which served as the catalyst for Captain Cures’ mission.

After the loss of her friend Betsy Jane Allen’s daughter to the disease, Francis Crutchfield joined Allen as Captains of the Lee’s Scouts Relay For Life Team in Powhatan. Allen would eventually lose her husband to cancer and Crutchfield lost her best friend, Marcia Clawson, to the disease in March of 2008.

“We seem to be adding people for whom to walk. I think, unfortunately, we are not unusual in this,” Crutchfield said.

Lee Dean, for whom the Relay For Life Team was named, was a great animal lover and a veterinary assistant, Crutchfield said, so it was a natural transition from passive plaything to pro-active crusader for one floppy-eared Dalmatian. But it is the other characters Captain Cure interacts with that make Crutchfield’s book so unusual.

Real animal patients and real veterinarians are assisted by the canine crusader.

The book is dedicated to both Lynda Lee Allen Deane and John Wall Allen and all proceeds from the sale of the book go to the American Cancer Society.

Crutchfield’s efforts and creativity were recognized by the Virginia Press Women with a First Place Award in March of this year. Her poem “To Virginia Tech” also garnered a First Place Award. Her work will now be submitted for consideration at the National level.

A lunch and book signing will be held at the Bon Air Shell Station from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 17. For now, Captain Cure is on sabbatical but another volume of his work is “a maybe,” according to his creator.

Regardless, as the books says, “Ladies and gentlemen, germs and diseases, humans and maladies, sniffles and wheezes, illnesses, sicknesses, and even loud sneezes…… we can be sure we will endure with Captain Cure!”