In her new book about overcoming life’s obstacles, Salintae Tuzo-Smith writes that whatever your struggles, you are more powerful than them, simply because you are alive.

“The journey starts, not to see if you will win, but to see if you will choose to win,” she writes in Power in Your Journey.

However, when the counsellor and therapist turned the first page of the first copy of the book, she received a nasty shock.

“There were sentences missing, and the formatting was all wrong,” she recalled.

Knowing she could not sell the book like that, she put it to one side, feeling defeated.

“I had already announced the book was coming out, so I e-mailed the bookstore and apologised, saying I could not put it out,” she said. “I felt really ashamed that I had had this deadline and could not honour it.”

She shelved her manuscript for months and then years, focusing instead on building her life-coaching practice, Metanoia Power, and raising her young daughter.

Eventually, she had to turn to the advice in the book itself to get it going again.

“I looked at the chapter on showing gratitude, specifically the part about respecting your journey,” Ms Tuzo-Smith said. “Respecting your journey means humbling yourself to your circumstances, from time to time.”

Ms Tuzo-Smith wonders now if her first attempt to publish was just not the right time.

She went back to editing her book, making sure sentences were in the right place, and that the words appeared on the page in the right format.

New copies of the book arrived this month and were perfect. Power in Your Journey is now available for purchase.

It is not meant to be an autobiography, but is heavily inspired by her journey with sickle cell anaemia.

“When I was a baby, doctors diagnosed the worst form of the condition,” she said. “It is a deadly and crippling hereditary blood disorder. It is one that kills many souls.”

The disease impacts the shape of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to all parts of the body. Red blood cells are usually round and flexible, so they move easily through blood vessels, but people with sickle cell anaemia have some red blood cells shaped like crescent moons. These abnormally-shaped cells also become rigid and sticky, which can slow or block blood flow.

The disease can damage organs, cause ulcers, trigger episodes of severe pain and increase the risk of infection.

Most of Ms Tuzo-Smith’s early memories involve long stays in the hospital, needle pricks and wheelchair rides up and down corridors.

When she was 3, she almost lost her leg after a nurse wrongly positioned an intravenous drip in her foot. Medical staff did not notice her foot swelling until it split open.

The event was so serious that doctors in Bermuda recommended she have her leg amputated. Instead, her mother insisted she be flown to Canada for treatment. There, doctors saved her leg, but she was left with lifelong problems because of the incident, including a leg-length difference.

The Bermuda medical staff responsible for the trauma never apologised.

“It was basically negligence, in my opinion,” she said.

For Ms Tuzo-Smith, writing Power in Your Journey, was a therapeutic experience that helped her to find closure.

“Closure is never something that you have to do with somebody else,” she said. “It is something that you process through yourself.”

One of the philosophies in her book is about optimism.

“That does not mean you have to be happy all the time, or always be smiling,” she said. “Instead, it means knowing that things will get better. It is about keeping hope alive.”

The book is Ms Tuzo-Smith’s second publication.

She also shared her story in a chapter in Mindset Matters, published last year by SuccessBooks. The book includes a number of stories by different counselling professionals, which demonstrate the transformation power of mindset. Her chapter is right next to one by Jack Canfield, author of the famed Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.

“Mindset Matters is about giving people the motivation to overcome their obstacles,” she said.

She was asked to participate by motivational speaker Lisa Nichols.

“I did a coaching session with her a few years ago,” Ms Tuzo-Smith said.

A ghost writer helped to tell her story for Mindset Matters.

“This was a different experience,” she said. “It was interesting not knowing what part of the story to tell since I only had one chapter,” she said. “I just started talking. Having someone else write your story is weird and even uncomfortable, but you get to see how others see your story.”

The Celebrity Branding agency did the editing and publishing and marketing which got Mindset Matters on the Amazon bestseller list.

Ms Tuzo-Smith was thrilled to win a Quilly Award from the National Academy of Best-Selling Authors for her work on Mindset Matters. She received her trophy at a special presentation in Beverly Hills, California, last year.

“I did get to meet Jack Canfield,” she said. “I also got to network with the other professionals. It was a great opportunity to meet other authors from around the world.”

• Power in Your Journey is available in the Bookmart at Brown & Co through the author, and will soon be available on Amazon.com. For more information see her Instagram page