When I kissed my husband goodbye one morning I felt a sharp, electrical current shoot down my face

WHEN a kiss from Sarah Susak’s husband gave her what felt like an electric shock, she didn’t think much of it.

But the goodbye peck before he dashed off to work uncovered a devastating truth that left her with a giant hole in her face and a terrifying prognosis.

Doctors discovered she was suffering from a rare form of head and neck cancer that had caused a large tumour in the left side of her face.

Surgery to remove it left the 48-year-old with part of her nose missing, which was reconstructed with part of her leg. She was also missing seven teeth. 

Sarah has now written a book about her amazing fight for survival – after the kiss that saved her life.

The mum, from New South Wales, Australia, tells Sun Health: “I’m just so grateful to be alive – and it’s all thanks to a simple kiss goodbye from my hubby.

“I made a promise to survive for him and our daughter Stella, now nine, and thankfully I’m cancer free and can look forward to the future.”

It was August 2017 when Sarah’s husband Halan, 54, gave her a kiss on the way to work as a creative director at an advertising agency.

When his lips touched her cheek it sent a sharp electrical current shooting down the side of her face. 

“The pain from Halan’s kiss was something I’d never felt before, so I went to the doctors that day to get it checked out,” she says. 

“I was diagnosed with nerve pain and told to manage it with painkillers. But the shocks returned whenever I touched my face.

“I went back to the GP and was referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist. He took a biopsy and sent me for an MRI.”

Then came the devastating results for Sarah, who had given birth to Stella just 18 months before. 

She was diagnosed with a rare cancer called adenoid cystic carcinoma, which was coming through her upper left palate inside her mouth, and told it would likely spread.

Although treatment would prolong her life, it probably wouldn’t save her. 

“My world literally just fell apart,” she says. 

“I’d always been healthy so why had I been dealt such a cruel twist of fate? I had no other symptoms.

“Dying was not an option for me. We’d fought hard to have Stella through IVF treatment and there was no way that I wasn’t surviving for her.”

Sarah, who works as general manager of legal and corporate affairs for a food manufacturing company, was referred to a specialist surgeon in Brisbane for treatment. 

To survive, she needed highly complicated and risky surgery to remove the tumour, which would likely result in her losing her hearing and an eye.

She says: “I knew I’d never look the same again, but Halan told me that I’d always be beautiful to him.

“The surgery took 19 hours and afterwards my face was incredibly swollen. 

“I had a gaping hole in my nose and was missing seven teeth. 

“Surgeons had taken my leg bone and skin to reconstruct my palate and jaw, and taken veins from my feet to reconnect the muscles and nerves. 

“It was mind blowing to think they had built me a new face out of my leg.

“Despite being shocked when I looked in the mirror, I knew my wounds were proof that I’d survived.”

Sarah, whose left nostril is no longer functioning, had to undergo six weeks of radiotherapy and learn to talk again. 

After nine months she was allowed back home, and turned to meditation to help cope with the trauma she’d had to go through. 

“I endured ‘bone death’, which has caused little bone pieces to surge through my gums inside my mouth and cut the back of my tongue, making it really difficult and painful to talk,” Sarah tells Craniofacial Australia.

“I also had to get a hearing aid for some partial hearing loss and I’ve had multiple dentures attempted that don’t necessarily stay in.

“And the worst by far has been the really bad nerve pain in my face, making everyday living – talking, working, socialising – really difficult.

“But there has been a huge emotional impact, which is hard to put into words – the lingering stares, the social anxiety that I didn’t have before, the guilt when you see the fear and worry on the faces of your family.”

“Before, I used to think I was healthy, but I was a busy working mum

Sarah Susak

In April 2024, a scan showed the cancer had spread to her lungs, and Sarah, who says her “eye sunk into her head”, had to have an operation to remove it. 

During that time she was paralysed from the neck down and on a life support machine for four days.

It had caused Guillain Barre syndrome – a rare neurological disorder where the immune system attacks the body’s nervous system. 

She spent nearly three months in hospital learning to swallow, talk and walk again.

Now, a year on, and running her own meditation business Medi Steady Go, Sarah has written a book about her cancer journey called Youru and is looking to the future.

“It’s totally changed my approach to my health,” she says.

“Before, I used to think I was healthy, but I was a busy working mum and I would eat lots of convenient processed foods. 

“Now I only eat organic, clean unprocessed foods, drink lots of water and use low toxic products, such as cleaning sprays, shampoo and make-up.

“I also try to reduce stress as much as possible and I’ve changed my work routine.

“I no longer work later hours long into the night. And I practise and teach meditation. 

“I want to do everything I can to prevent this cancer from coming back.”

Visit sarahsusak.com for more information on learning meditation.