"If I can help make the path even a little easier for the next family, then that’s what I want to do.”
Di Bowles
Di Bowles: From Caregiver to Advocate for Brain Cancer Patients
When Di and her husband Ross look back on his 2013 brain cancer diagnosis, they realise it set them on a path to become the ‘foot soldiers of survivors’ — advocating for change and championing greater understanding of the disease.
“There aren’t many people with brain cancer that live this long,” Di says. “We feel a welcome obligation to use what we’ve learned to make things better for others.”
Over more than a decade, they’ve raised $100,000 for Brain Cancer Australia and driven awareness. Today, Di continues that work on Brain Cancer Australia’s Consumer Advisory Panel, putting patient voices at the centre of national infrastructure initiatives.
“Nothing prepares you for the shock of hearing the words ‘It’s brain cancer’ for the first time,” she says. “I suddenly had to become a researcher, an organiser, and an advocate — all while being a wife, carer, and mother.”
Ross was diagnosed with grade three oligodendroglioma. Brain surgery was followed by 33 radiation cycles and six rounds of chemotherapy — along with countless visits to specialists and therapists.
Through it all, Di has never stopped advocating — even changing careers to work in wellbeing policy after seeing the impact of positive psychology in her own family."If I can help make the path even a little easier for the next family, then that’s what I want to do.”
Keep reading Di’s story and learn more about her advocacy here.
