Teen’s love of dance powers her through cancer to perform at NDP 2025

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

“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 about it 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.

At one year old, she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that forms in soft tissues, specifically in muscle cells. There are about 4.5 cases for every one million children and adolescents under the age of 20 globally.

Sara’s mother, Mrs Esther Kueh, related how she discovered something was amiss with her daughter: 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 was operated on to remove the tumour, before she received chemotherapy and radiation to treat the primary tumour site.

Unfortunately, at 29 months old, Sara suffered a relapse when cancer was found in a lymph node on 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.

Child oncologist Frances Yeap, who 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 and altering her appearance. She remains petite in stature.

“For the good 10 to 12 years, we were monitoring and managing her late effects, mainly her heart function, growth and endocrine hormone issues,” Dr Yeap said.

“Due to the radiation, her bone health and growth and thyroid were affected. She was small and petite, but she didn’t mind, as she said it’s okay for dance. We were also always on the lookout for secondary cancers and recurrences.”

Going to school was fine until Sara reached the secondary level 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 National University Hospital (NUH), said she and her other siblings Caitlin, 27, and Gabriel, 25, had to remove several posts 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 in 2023, 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,” said surgeon Mark Puhaindran, a senior consultant at the division of musculoskeletal oncology at NUH’s orthopaedic surgery department. He worked with a team of surgeons to remove the tumour, together with 4cm of her collarbone and surrounding tissues in her right shoulder, while preserving major blood vessels and nerves.

“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 was the last of her cancer, the Kuehs were disappointed when a positron emission tomography scan, a routine scan after her shoulder operation, showed a tumour in her right lung in December 2024. Dr Lee Yang Yang, a consultant from the paediatric surgery department 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 heart-rending,” Mrs Kueh recounted with tears streaming.

Fortunately, the tumour in the lung was very small, and the keyhole surgery meant Sara would have far less pain and a far quicker recovery, Dr Lee said. The procedure took 1½ hours, and the length of her stay at the hospital was four days, compared with a week if the procedure were done via conventional open surgery.

It was not long before 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.

Her sister Isabelle said: “Watching Sara grow up and seeing how far she has come became emotional for me. It is a true testament to her strength and spirit. If you sit down and think about what she has been through, it is really crazy.”

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 determined 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 noted.