Photography: Babiche Martens.
When Sarah O’Neil was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she feared the worst for her future. Instead, the shock diagnosis became the catalyst for complete reinvention, swapping city life for the country and discovering a career she had only dreamed of.
“I look back and it was one of the biggest blessings in my life to actually get MS because it led to us changing our life,” says Sarah, 55.
One of the first signs that something wasn’t right was when one side of Sarah’s face started to go numb in 2005.
“All of a sudden, I couldn’t feel my face,” she recalls.
“It started with my ear and moved across my face over the course of a weekend.”
Seven months pregnant with her second son, Sarah was desperate to make sure whatever was happening wasn’t affecting her baby and drove straight to her local after-hours clinic, where she was promptly sent to the hospital.
A life-changing diagnosis
It took six months and lots of testing, but eventually Sarah was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic and incurable brain and spinal cord disease where the body’s immune system attacks the protective cover around nerves.
“It was really scary to be told you’ve got something there’s no cure for,” she admits.
“And at that point, there was no medication either. It was like, ‘You have this disease. All the best.’”
The uncertainty prompted Sarah and her husband Tom to completely overhaul their lives. The first thing to go was their home in Auckland’s busy Mount Wellington. Moving from a tiny city section for three acres near Waiuku was a shock.
“We went from being able to see in the windows of 16 other houses to not seeing another house at all,” she explains.
Finding joy in the garden
The self-confessed city slickers knew almost nothing about country life, but Sarah promptly started growing her own food.
“I was outside, getting vitamin D, eating fresh food and getting exercise, and it was really good for my health,” says Sarah, who is mum to Tim, now 22, and Joey, 20.
“The kids were involved, learning where food comes from, everything about it was absolutely amazing.”
However, she laughs, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Their first vegetable garden flooded so badly during winter rains that the carrots floated away.
Those early adventures in the garden inspired Sarah to enter a blogging competition. She hadn’t written since high school, but quickly realised she’d discovered another passion.
“I fell in love with writing as much as I fell in love with the garden, and the two of them worked really well together,” she smiles.
“If you needed something to write about, then you go and do some gardening.”
Building a new life
Winning the competition in 2011 led to a long-running and ongoing role for garden company Yates as an ambassador, and eventually to her first published book. Along the way, she went from a mum learning how to live with MS to popular online personality Sarah the Gardener.
“One of the things that I’ve learned through gardening with MS is, you just need to slow down. There is no hurry – you can’t hurry nature. You’ve got to go at its pace.”
None of it, Sarah says, would have been possible without Tom, 55.
“He is my number-one support,” she says.
“He will drop everything, come help me move something heavy or make sure I’m comfortable if I’ve overdone things. I’d be lost without him.”
A life she never expected
These days, their boys have moved out of home and the couple lives on a different four-hectare coastal property in Waiuku. Here, Sarah tends 35 raised garden beds, which, depending on the season, are overflowing with everything from asparagus and strawberries to peanuts, popcorn and kohlrabi.
“While it does leave me some days feeling absolutely exhausted and lying on the sofa thinking, ‘What the heck have I just done?’ I don’t have any regrets whatsoever,” says Sarah, who is grateful for the medication which is now available and significantly helps her manage the fatigue and other symptoms of MS.
Once afraid MS would steal her future, Sarah now looks at the rich, meaningful life that’s grown from those difficult beginnings with deep gratitude. Her sons are capable young men, her career continues to flourish with the release of her latest book Growing Vegetables and her dreams for the future are as ambitious as ever.
“I love what I do,” she smiles.
“If I didn’t have gardening or writing, I don’t know what I would do. I can’t even comprehend what my life would be like without them.”
Growing Vegetables: A Simple Guide for New Zealand Gardeners (White Cloud Books, rrp $39.99)
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