"Brain cancer is the only cancer that not only robs you of your life; but while it’s doing that also robs you of who you are."
Bec Mallett
If anyone deserves a brain cancer breakthrough, it’s Bec Mallett.
Bec has lived alongside brain cancer for most of her adult life — first as a sister-in-law, then as a wife, and always as an advocate determined to make things better for others.
Her first experience came in her twenties, when her brother’s wife Caroline was diagnosed with oligodendroglioma at just 27. Caroline lived for five years, but the experience revealed how little support existed for people affected by brain cancer.
“We just couldn’t believe how isolating it all was,” Bec says. “Other cancers seemed to have networks and pathways. Brain cancer didn’t.”
After Caroline died in 2011, Bec and her brother Clinton made a promise to change that. Two years later, they founded the Peace of Mind Foundation, which now supports more than 1,000 people each year through counselling, practical support, retreats and advocacy.
In 2019, brain cancer became personal again. At a Peace of Mind retreat Bec met Matt, a photographer living with IDH-mutant glioma – a slow-growing but incurable brain cancer. They married, built a life together, and welcomed a child — knowing the disease would always be part of their future.
Today, Matt is 18 years into his brain cancer journey. After multiple surgeries and ongoing treatment, he lives with significant physical and cognitive challenges.
“It’s the only cancer that not only robs you of your life; but while it’s doing that also robs you of who you are — your potential, your personality, your ability to think, talk and rationalise,” says Bec.
In her role as both carer and advocate, Bec speaks openly about anticipatory grief through the I AM campaign, which challenges misconceptions about living with brain cancer.
“You feel like you’ve lost the person you love before they’ve actually passed away,” she says. “They’re still here, but the essence of who they are has changed.”
Despite the emotional toll, Bec continues to work at Peace of Mind Foundation and holds onto hope that change will come.
“That’s what keeps me going,” she says. “To know that one day someone will hear that there’s a new drug or a different treatment that will give them more time and a better quality of life – that would be enough.”
Read Bec's full story on her journey with brain cancer and the work she's doing to benefit others.
The I AM campaign was developed by the pharmaceutical company Servier and co-created with the brain cancer community, including Brain Cancer Australia.
