Brooke’s Battle With A Rare Brain Cancer

I have created this Go-Fund-Me page for My 21 year old Daughter in law Brooke.
Brooke’s life has just been turned upside down as she is currently suffering from a rare and fast growing brain tumour 
and has now,  only 7 days from Christmas been told it has reoccured once again but with a vengeance this time.
Brooke has been told she needs to undergo surgery to remove this tumour  followed by 6 weeks of radiation which she has previously undergone before 
Jacob who has stood by her side all through her treatment but is now having to leave his job for 6 weeks to be with her through this emotional time and with covid taking all of his built up annual leave we are trying to raise enough money  to help Jacob and Brooke with any out of pocket medical expenses as well as trying to ease the financial burden and to help with the care of their absolutely beautiful little 1 year old boy,  Ryder,

We would like to thank you all for your love, prayers and blessings for Brooke and her loving little family
please keep reading to  find out about Brook’s brave journey and how far she has come through this sad and stressful time 

What should of been an amazing time of her life, Being newly married to a loving and supportive husband Jacob and a first time mum to a cheerful and joyful little boy, Ryder. Her small world has been turned upside down over the past 3 years.

As many of you would know and for those of you who don’t know here is her story

In 2017 at the age of 18 Brooke was diagnosed with a very rare and fast growing brain cancer, a grade 3 Anaplastic Ependymoma in her left parietal lobe.
This was a very big shock for her, and her family and friends.

Brooke was admitted to the Rockhampton base hospital, but with her condition and without the correct medical facilities available locally Brooke was flown to Brisbane to get the medical attention she needed.
Brooke spent over a week in the RBWH undergoing a very long tedious 6 hour brain surgery operation. Followed by a week of recovery and physiotherapy to learn to get her motor skills working again.

After a stressful long wait the results come back ....the surgeon had completed a full resection by removing 100% of the brain tumour and the biopsy results came back as a malignant tumour and the only effective after treatment for this type of cancer is radiotherapy. After a few weeks of recovery Brooke was flown back to Brisbane followed by her husband Jacob by her side to undergo 6 weeks of precise image guided radiation therapy 
During the time of the radiation Brooke had a few side affects of tiredness, appetite loss and the loss of her lovely blonde hair. This played on Brooke’s self confidence quite a lot but with the right motivation that she had and all the love and family support Brooke pulled through and showed her happy loving personality whenever and wherever she could.

Almost 3 years went by with Brooke enjoying the happy life that any young adult deserves, having her wedding day and honeymoon then shortly after Jacob and her welcomed their first child, Ryder, into the world.
Brooke loves nothing more then being a mum to Ryder and an amazing job she does at that.

Ryder being 15 months old and diagnosed with global development delay is a challenge on its own but a few months later after finding these results out about Ryder Brooke started having symptoms again of loss of vision, dizziness, loss of thought and severe migraines.
A MRI was scheduled at the Rockhampton base hospital with the saddened results that the tumour had once again unexpectedly returned.
Brooke then had to return back to Brisbane for another operation at an attempt to fully remove the tumour from her left parietal lobe. The same surgery procedure was completed with the results showing the tumour was fully removed. Brooke stayed in the hospital for a week to recover and complete her physiotherapy again. This time around Brooke had done an amazing job with her recovery that she was up and walking around the next day after her brain surgery. This proving she was ready to leave the hospital bed to reunite with her little boy who she missed dearly


After the 2nd surgery Brooke had to start looking at her options of an aftercare treatment and after a few appointments with the oncology team the only treatment that could of been an option was chemotherapy but unfortunately there was no benefits of Brooke doing this chemo as it had no beneficial effects on her type of cancer and there were not many clinical trials that had been completed in Australia nor the world leaving the statistics very unknown if this would stop her cancer from returning.
Brooke held her hopes high that the surgery was enough to keep the tumour from returning.

5 months went by and Brooke was at home on the weekend but started to have an extremely bad headache and vision loss so she went and laid down, shortly after Jacob returned home from work and found brooke having a severe seizure lasting 7 whole minutes. This being an extremely stressful situation with a baby needing to be attended to and at the same time medically trying to attend to Brooke.
The ambulance arrived and Brooke was stabilised before been transported to the Rockhampton base hospital.
A CT scan was performed to check for any damage or bleeding to the brain but sadly the results come back that the seizure she had was caused from the tumour returning and growing rapidly fast in such a short period of time. Brooke was then flown to Brisbane Hospital for monitoring and if needed to be prepared for surgery.
She was put on steroids and anti-seizure medication to help keep the swelling down and the seizures at bay.
The MRI results that were taken in Brisbane showed the tumour had returned 3 months after her last surgery and had now been growing for another 2 months which caused the tumour to spread further down covering the majority of her occipital lobe and her left parietal lobe. Brooke being the amazing mum she is, asked if she could return home and spend Christmas with all her family and all her loved ones, as the hospital, being short staffed at this time, it sounded a much better option.
Brooke got her Christmas wish and she has now returned home to spend Christmas with her little family and all her loved ones
she will then head back to Brisbane hospital for another tedious brain surgery operation after Christmas Day

As this is Brooke’s third surgery with two being reoccurrences of this horrible fast growing cancer and  the most recent tumour  returning only in a matter of 3 short months the oncology team and neurosurgeons have discussed that another round of radiation will be Brooke’s best and only option for an after treatment.
As many know radiation is only suppose to be administered once to a patient as they run into many high risks and chances of very severe after effects when administered twice to the same location. Although this scares us all Brooke is willing to do anything to spend as much precious time with her little boy and her loving husband as she can.


Brooke will be starting the 6 weeks of radiotherapy process in the beginning of the new year.
Please help us support Brooke and Jacob by a donation or by sending them lots of love, prayers and  Blessings
I will be updating this page throughout her surgery and radiation treatment for those who are following her journey 


I have also enclosed the link below for anyone wishing to donate to the CERN Foundation so more young people like Brooke have a brighter chance in life and help find a cure for this rare cancer

https://www.cern-foundation.org/