'I'm a brain cancer survivor of 13 years and this is what I've learned'

Beth Doggett was 19 and ready to launch into her rite of passage: a trip to Europe.

Instead she was told she had a brain tumour and three months to live.

Today, 13 years on, the effervescent 32-year-old says she's "doing life" but there's more to it than that.

With husband Rowan by her side and dog Frank not far away, Beth admitted she reached a crossroad a few months back.

Did she challenge herself and "tell her story"? Could she cope with feeling vulnerable all over again in the hope some of the experiences she faced as a teenager help someone in a similar position now?

"I want to share my story because it's so important for people to be aware there are long-term survivors of brain cancer.

"I want to create awareness and I want to go down the advocacy angle with my life," the Illawarra, NSW, resident said.

That advocacy and support started years ago but first, where it all began.

The only child of Paul and Marisa Abbey had finished her secondary schooling in Wollongong. She'd been dealing with a series of fainting spells, initially attributed to "hormones". As the incidents grew more frequent Beth and her parents sought extra medical help.

The family's GP ordered an MRI and from there, in Beth's words, "it was all go".

"I didn't have any time to process anything and I think that's why I don't have a head in my sand approach - because I haven't been able to.

"It was an MRI then emergency brain surgery. And I honestly, I don't remember too much from that."

What was eventually discovered to be a grade 2 astrocytoma was removed but the diagnosis was heartbreaking - as was the delivery.

"They actually didn't tell me," Beth, then 19, recalled. "They shut the curtains around my bed but they gave me my update from the rounds. While they were doing that, mum and dad left and I was like, hold up a second: What just happened?

Beth's parents were told the tumour, initially thought to be benign, wasn't and that she had three months to live.

Much heartache, two more surgeries and four months in Wollongong Hospital later, Beth headed home to recover before six weeks of radiotherapy at the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in Sydney.

She was poorly but, with the unflinching support of her parents, keen to get on with radiation after a six-week rehab at home. She lost her thick, long hair, her eyesight was affected as was her balance.

All this in 2011 coincided with Beth's first year of a social work degree at the University of NSW. That added more complexity.

She couldn't make those human connections with her uni peers but was committed to her course. Working with a psychologist helped her develop skills to deal with adjustments she now faced, and encouraged her to persist with uni.

She pushed herself to finish her degree, completing a summer session so she would graduate in 2015 but not before completing a student placement at Wollongong Hospital.

She soon realised her first-hand knowledge of a patient's psyche at a time of uncertainty and stress, and her experience as a young patient meant she had skills to offer.

"The stay in hospital really solidified how much I wanted to do social work, if I'm honest because I got a feeling of what it was, what it definitely was," she said.

After a brief stint with Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in a professional capacity, Beth spent three years with Rare Cancers Australia as a "specialist cancer navigator" and now works for CatholicCare Wollongong as a school counsellor. Her growth and personal development continues, and for that she's grateful to her husband.

"In the five years I've been with Rowan, I have learned so much more about myself, about my strengths, and about who I was meant to be as a person - and also who I didn't want to be.

"I'm in a position where I'm strong and resilient."

And she's ready to advocate for people living with cancer. She wants to turn her experience into positive action.

if you receive a cancer diagnosis, unscrambling your mind is important Beth says. Here are the five factors that may help you early on.

HOPE: Hang on to it - and hang on hard. Having been told the worst news possible, Beth made a conscious decision: to be as positive as she could, as often as she could. "You've got to allow yourself to be hopeful. You need to give yourself permission to be hopeful because ... well, why wouldn't you?" she asks rhetorically.

FIND YOUR TEAM: They are the people who can help you through whatever you are facing. Different people may fulfil different roles at different times, Beth said.

"Finding the people around you who help you harness that inner strength is so important. Using the words 'harnessing inner abilities' sounds a little cult-ish but it's exactly what you need to do." And if that doesn't make sense now, Beth is adamant it will should you ever find yourself in a situation when you need "a team".

COMMUNICATION: Work out the style of communication that suits you best - and let people know. "Communication is so important for anybody going through any experience," Beth says. "But, of course especially for someone young."

Beth says she's now "an assertive communicator" thanks to her experience as a teenager which was far from ideal: "I had to learn to be assertive because that was the only way I was going get told anything."

ADJUSTING to the NEW NORM: Be warned, things change - everything from your body to (maybe) your abilities and your emotions. Beth warns that you will need head space to adjust to those changes. "You will have a 'new normal'. For instance, I now have to wear glasses and I wear wigs. Well, I don't have to wear a wig. But if I want to go to the supermarket then I have to deal with the confused looks of people ... It's not only adjusting to what you're seeing but it's adjusting to what others have to see. You're adjusting to differences, of who you are now and that is a really hard one."

GLIMMERS: They're there, every day, you just have to see them. They are the tiny shafts of light. The moments that make you smile - not necessarily outwardly, but inwardly. "I learned about this term ages ago," Beth said. "I always like to find glimmers every day. It isn't going to be a super big thing but just something that makes you happy."