When the news broke that Sarah Young had passed away on August 31, 2023, it felt like a personal loss for millions of people. You’ve probably seen her book, Jesus Calling, on a nightstand or tucked into a bag at a coffee shop. It’s everywhere. But while her words reached over 45 million people, the woman behind them was basically a mystery.
She didn't do book tours. She didn't do big TV interviews.
Honestly, the Sarah Young cause of death wasn't just one single event, but rather the end of a very long, very grueling road of physical suffering. If you're looking for the short answer: she died from complications related to cancer—specifically, a rare and aggressive form of leukemia. She was 77. But to just say "cancer" kind of misses the whole point of who she was and how she lived.
The Battle Nobody Saw
For more than twenty years, Sarah Young lived a life that most of us would find totally unbearable. It wasn’t just the cancer at the end. In fact, her health started falling apart way back in 2001.
She was living in Perth, Australia, with her husband, Steve, doing missionary work. Suddenly, she started getting hit with these bizarre, draining symptoms. At first, doctors thought it was chronic fatigue syndrome. Later, they realized it was Lyme disease.
But it wasn't "just" Lyme. She struggled with:
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- Severe Vertigo: Imagine feeling like the world is spinning 24/7. She had a massive attack in 2008 and the dizziness basically never went away.
- Extreme Fatigue: There were years where she was essentially housebound, spending 20 hours a day in a single room.
- Multiple Infections: She actually had two different co-infections related to the Lyme disease.
She even spent six months in the U.S. in 2009 for "intensive, expensive" IV antibiotic treatments. They didn't work. Imagine the heartbreak of spending all that money and time only to feel worse than when you started. That's the kind of grit she had.
Sarah Young Cause of Death: The Final Diagnosis
While the Lyme disease and vertigo defined her middle years, it was a cancer diagnosis that eventually led to her passing. In late 2022, Sarah shared with her followers that she had been diagnosed with a type of blood cancer.
She was incredibly open about it. She told her readers she was becoming very anemic and was starting chemotherapy. By the time August 2023 rolled around, her publisher, Thomas Nelson, put out a statement saying her health was "rapidly failing."
It’s kind of wild to think about. This woman, who spent her mornings praying for her readers while she could barely stand up, was now the one asking for prayers. She died peacefully at her home in Brentwood, Tennessee, surrounded by family.
Why the Mystery?
A lot of people wonder why we didn't know more about her while she was alive. The truth is, she wasn't trying to be mysterious or "edgy." She was just really, really sick.
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She once told a reporter (via email, because she couldn't do in-person stuff) that if she had been healthier, she never would have written Jesus Calling. Think about that. The very thing that made her famous was born out of the fact that she was too sick to do "normal" missionary work. She had to sit still. She had to listen.
She called it "listening prayer." Since she couldn't go out and plant churches or lead big groups anymore, she just sat with her journal and wrote what she felt God was saying to her.
A Legacy Beyond the Diagnosis
If you look at the Sarah Young cause of death, you see a list of medical conditions. But if you look at her life, you see something totally different.
- She was a scholar. She had a philosophy degree from Wellesley and two master’s degrees (one from Tufts and one from Covenant Theological Seminary). She wasn't some lightweight writer; she was deeply intellectual.
- She was a counselor. Before she got sick, she worked as a counselor helping people who had dealt with severe trauma and abuse.
- She was a missionary. She and her husband spent years in Japan and Australia.
Even when the cancer took over, she didn't stop. She was working on new devotionals right up until the end. Jesus Listens was one of her later projects that really focused on the power of prayer—something she clearly relied on during those final months in Tennessee.
What We Can Learn From Her Story
It's easy to get caught up in the details of a celebrity's death, but Sarah Young wasn't really a celebrity in the traditional sense. She was a "publicity-shy superstar."
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The biggest takeaway from her battle with Lyme, vertigo, and eventually leukemia is how she handled disappointment. She tried every medical treatment under the sun. She prayed for healing that didn't come in the way she expected.
Yet, she didn't get bitter. She used that "isolated location" (as she called it) to create something that helped millions of other people who were also sitting in dark rooms feeling alone.
Moving Forward
If you’ve struggled with chronic illness or you’re grieving a loss, Sarah’s story is a reminder that a "limited" life isn't a wasted one. Her death was the result of a long-term physical decline, but her work continues to grow.
If you want to honor her legacy or find the same kind of peace she wrote about, you might want to:
- Try journaling: Not for anyone else to read, but just to get your own thoughts and "listened" prayers on paper.
- Look into Lyme awareness: Her struggle for a diagnosis is something thousands of people go through every year.
- Read the scriptures she cited: She always insisted her books weren't a replacement for the Bible, but a bridge to it.
Her life ended in Brentwood, but the "peace in His presence" she talked about is still something people are finding in her pages every single morning.
To better understand the impact of her work, you can explore the various editions of her devotionals or look into the missions work she supported through the Presbyterian Church in America.