Yoga Transformed Me After Amputation

Marsha Danzig lost her lower leg to cancer when she was 13. Here’s how she found strength and courage through yoga.

I was five when I was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare, cancerous tumor that occurs in bones or soft tissue. It was 1967, and the survival rate was below 20 percent. Laying in my hospital bed with my entire family surrounding me, a priest came to perform last rites (my grandmother told me I was receiving my first communion). As soon as the priest placed the holy wafer on my tongue, a profound spiritual experience took place. I felt a deep sensation of trust settle into my bones—and I knew that I would be OK. Against the odds, I survived, and after about a year of chemotherapy and radiation, I found remission.

Asana came a few years later. I recall thumbing through a Guinness Book of World Records, which contained pictures of yogis in various postures or suspending their breath for long periods of time. As a young gymnast and ballerina, I was curious. I began constantly “playing yoga” anywhere I could—on the couch, in the backyard, during recess.