Sarah Susak, 48, was told she would need to have a large portion of her head removed

Sarah was initially misdiagnosed

A woman experienced what she described as an “electric shock” sensation when kissing her husband, only to discover that this unusual symptom was a warning sign of cancer. Prior to undergoing surgery, 48-year-old Sarah Susak was informed that a substantial portion of her head would be removed.

She recalled: “When I was told they were going to do open face surgery to remove the tumour, I was told I would lose my eye and my hearing.

“I gave them permission to do whatever they needed to save me. I came out with missing teeth as they took half my palate. They used the skin from my leg to build my new palate – I can feel the leg hairs still growing inside my mouth.

Sarah with her daughter

“They used my fibula in my leg to rebuild my jaw and veins from my feet to connect muscles. It was amazing how many different parts of my body they used to rebuild my face.”

Sarah’s health ordeal began in 2017 when she noticed her first and only symptom of head cancer – a sharp sensation when her husband, Halan, kissed her. The strange tingling persisted, leading Sarah to consult her doctor after a week.

Initially misdiagnosed as neuralgia; a condition where pain results from pressure on nerves, her symptoms didn’t improve. She was then referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist who discovered a large growth inside her face.

Sarah said: “I opened my mouth and, immediately, he could see the tumour. I can’t believe I never noticed it or even felt it.” Following a biopsy, Sarah was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma – a rare and aggressive form of head and neck cancer that often grows silently and can be challenging to treat due to its propensity to invade nerves.

She was informed that there was a high chance the cancer would metastasise to other parts of her body post-treatment, indicating a prognosis that could extend her life but not cure her. A year and a half earlier, Sarah and Halan had celebrated the birth of their miracle daughter, Stella, after enduring eight challenging rounds of IVF.

Despite refusing to accept her grim prognosis, Sarah confessed to experiencing severe anxiety, haunted by the fear that her daughter might have to grow up without her mother. With an interest in holistic health, she sought advice from a wellness guru she followed on Instagram to help manage her anxiety.

Sarah felt a shock when she kissed her husband

This guru also connected her with doctors in India who recommended surgery to remove the tumour – advice she followed. The operation to excise the tumour lasted 19 hours and was succeeded by months of radiotherapy, which unfortunately led to osteoradionecrosis; a severe complication causing the bone tissue in Sarah’s jaw to begin dying.

She spent five years alternating between ICU and hospital wards, including periods isolated from her family, until doctors finally confirmed her cancer was in remission. However, seven years later, the cancer reappeared – manifesting as a small lesion inside one of her lungs.

The growth was surgically removed, and Sarah was told that she wouldn’t need radiotherapy. Believing she was at last free to rebuild her life, Sarah was caught off guard once more – this time by a sudden, icy sensation sweeping across her entire body just a week after surgery.

She said: “I couldn’t feel my fingers or my toes. Every surface I touched felt numb. I took myself to the emergency room, but the hospital dismissed me as having a panic attack.”

Over the next five days, Sarah’s health deteriorated significantly, and she had to fight to be taken seriously. Eventually, she found herself lying in a hospital corridor, insisting on being examined by a surgeon, before taking a severe turn for the worse.

“My eyes were rolling in the back of my head. My husband was in tears, and within four hours, I was completely paralysed from my neck down, I couldn’t breathe, so I had intubation, then a tracheotomy, and I was in ICU for many weeks.”

Sarah’s battle with Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), a rare condition where the body’s immune system assaults the nervous system, was a nightmare no one saw coming. The roots of GBS remain somewhat a mystery, often associated with previous viral or bacterial infections.

During her strenuous ordeal, Sarah slipped into unconsciousness for four terrifying days, found herself on life support, and her family braced for the darkest outcomes. Defying expectations, Sarah emerged from her coma only to hear prognoses of a year-long hospital stay, however her fighting spirit saw her discharged just after two and a half months.

Her journey didn’t end there, though; six more months of rehabilitation outside the hospital taught her to walk and even swallow once again. Throughout her recovery, Sarah expressed deep gratitude for the medical care she received.

However, she credits her life’s turnaround to the practice of Vedic meditation, an ancient tradition rooted in the use of mantras. “Meditation enabled me to deal with the constant ups and downs that I had for all those years of my life after my initial surgery.”

Sarah battled multiple complications, ranging from facial pain and radio necrosis to infections and immense fatigue following her first bout of cancer and its metastasis later. For Sarah, it was the art of meditation that became her sanctuary amid chaos, fostering her extraordinary capacity for self-healing

.Aside from her corporate responsibilities as a general manager, Sarah has pioneered her venture, Medi Steady Go®, aiming to impart her knowledge of calming the nervous system to others through the teachings that dramatically transformed her life. Embrace the power of Vedic meditation.

She chronicles her extraordinary health journey and introduces the fundamentals of the practice in her new book, YOURU: Find the Guru within You, out next month. The cover features Sarah beaming directly at the reader – a bold, radiant smile that defies everything she’s endured.

“As an author, I thought, ‘How can I stand out on a bookshelf?’” she says. “So I thought, well… I’ll just smile.”