'I have been fighting': Teen cancer survivor dances at NDP2025

Teenager Sara Grace Kueh had a lump in her right lung removed through keyhole surgery in March 2025, and a month later, the urban dancer was back rehearsing for the National Day Parade.

"Shortly after my surgery, my choreographer texted my mum asking if I could dance during the NDP this year. My mum asked if I was sure because she was worried, but I was really looking forward to performing at the NDP," said the 17-year-old tourism student at ITE College West.

No one could keep this whirlwind down, not even her doctors, "so here I am", she said.

The choreographer Sara was referring to was dance instructor Bobby Prayogi from Recognize! Studios, and she will be performing as part of the STNY Brothers dance crew.

The youngest of four children, Sara is a cancer survivor.

She was first diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, is a rare type of cancer that forms in soft tissues, specifically in muscle cells.

It occurs in about 4.5 cases in every one million children and adolescents under the age of 20 globally.

Sara's mother, Mrs Esther Kueh, shared about how she discovered something was amiss with Sara. She noticed Sara's left and right nostrils were uneven when breastfeeding her.

"One was rounded, and the other was elongated. When I touched the left side of Sara's face, I felt a lump under the skin close to her nose. She was later diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma," the 52-year-old housewife told The Straits Times.

That was the start of what seemed like a never-ending journey of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for little Sara.

She underwent chemotherapy to shrink the tumour, was operated on to remove it before she was put under radiation to treat the primary tumour site.

Unfortunately, at 29 months old, Sara suffered a relapse when cancer was found in a lymph node in the left side of her neck.

She went through the whole gamut of treatment again and by the time she was three years old, Sara had endured countless operations, chemotherapy and 48 rounds of radiotherapy to curb two bouts of aggressive cancer.

"And I have been fighting ever since," Sara told ST.

Dr Frances Yeap, a child oncologist, took care of Sara for her late chemotherapy and radiotherapy effects, said all long-term cancer patients suffer from the effects of treatments and the risk of secondary cancers.

The intense regimen impacted Sara's physical development, leaving her with only a few teeth, altering her appearance and she remains petite in stature.

"For the good 10 to 12 years, we were managing the effects, and we were also trying to grow her taller. She was already dancing, so her bulk was not a problem. We were also looking at her hormones, which was a big thing for us as they can significantly impact cancer growth and recurrence," Dr Yeap said.

Going to school was fine until Sara reached secondary school where most of the bullying started, Mrs Kueh said.

"Sara was subjected to whispers and nasty remarks from her schoolmates. They called her names and gossiped about her. People would sometimes point and stare at her in public. She became very self-conscious about her looks," she said.

Older sister Isabelle Joy Kueh, 26, a staff nurse with the department of orthopaedic surgery at the National University Hospital (NUH), said she had to remove several postings from social media platforms "so that the comments made there could not and did not upset Sara".

Despite everything, Sara threw herself into dance, a place where she is able to lose herself and her thoughts.

"Dance was and is a big part of my life. It helped in my recovery journey. It was something to look forward to every day because it keeps my mind off (my illness). In dance, I am not thinking about anything except counting steps," she said.

Just when her family and the doctors thought she had beaten the cancer, it reared its ugly head again.

As a result of the radiotherapy she underwent, Sara developed osteosarcoma, a cancerous tumour in the bone of her right shoulder blade.

It was discovered when Sara could not lift her right arm fully because of the tumour, which had to be removed.

However, before surgery was carried out, Sara asked to attend a dance competition so that she could cartwheel, something she would not be able to do after the operation.

"When I first saw Sara, her older sister Isabelle showed me a video of her performing and said Sara would be going back to do the same, no matter what, no pressure," surgeon Mark Puhaindran, a senior consultant from the division of musculoskeletal oncology of the department of orthopaedic surgery at NUH said.

Professor Puhaindran worked with a team of surgeons to remove not only the tumour but also muscles and nerves in Sara's right shoulder. About 4cm of her collarbone was also taken out.

"Sara was on medical leave a lot that year, and we were not sure if she could be promoted to Secondary 4," Mrs Kueh said. "But she surprised us all by going on to score three distinctions in her exams."

Thinking that that was the last of her cancer, the Kuehs were disappointed when a positron emission tomography (PET) scan, a routine scan after her shoulder operation, threw up a tumour in her right lung in December 2024.

Dr Lee Yang Yang, a consultant from the department of paediatric surgery at the Khoo Teck Puat-National University Children's Medical Institute, said: "This would be a metastatic lung tumour, but we were unsure if this was from her previous nose cancer, or her more recent collarbone tumour."

"When I told her the news, the scream she let out after was terribly heartwrenching," Mrs Kueh recounted with tears streaming.

Fortunately the tumour in the lung was very small, and use of the keyhole surgery meant that Sara would have far less pain and far quicker recovery, Dr Lee said.

The procedure took 1.5 hours, and her length of stay at the hospital was four days, compared with a week should the procedure be the conventional open surgery.

It was not long that Sara was back on her feet and rehearsing for her dance segment at the NDP.

"Rehearsals lasted two to three hours, twice a week. Practices were tiring as we had to repeat the steps over and over again to get it right. Despite the challenges, my friends keep me going," Sara said.

"Watching Sara grow up and seeing how far she has come became emotional for me. It is a true testiment of her strength and of her spirit. If you sit down and think about what she had been through, it was really crazy," Ms Isabelle Joy Kueh added.

The medical team looking after Sara felt very proud of her.

"Outwardly we expressed our concerns but within ourselves we feel happy that she is determine to live her life as she so wishes," Prof Puhaindran said.

"As a paediatric oncology doctor, we do not just aim to treat the cancer, but to bring the child back to the level they were at before the sickness. Sara epitomises this to the fullest extent and inspires me for what her indomitable spirit can achieve," Dr Lee added.