Russell Island woman’s battle with brain cancer throws spotlight on bayside’s shining intellects

A southern Moreton Bay island woman hopes to change the narrative about the bay islands and is using her battle against brain cancer to show off the ‘intellectual and nurturing’ presence on her island paradise.

Brain cancer survivor Linda Brown says she would not be here today without the help of the bay island community who helped her battle cancer and surgery.

A Russell Island woman, who took on the News South Wales government over Covid lockdowns, has now taken on the battle of her life.

Linda Brown made headlines last year when she lobbied the Premier to let her ailing father across the Queensland border against Covid sanctions and also led a crusade to get a proper sewerage system on the bay islands.

Now she has a new fight on her hands ... brain cancer.

And her cure was closer to home than she thought.

The neurosurgeon who performed a high-risk four-hour brain operation to save her life has close connections to the island.

Dr Sarah Olson, a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, trained in Brisbane, Auckland and Victoria.

Dr Olson spearheaded and maintains a tumour bank to enable research in cancer, while also directly supporting development of female neurosurgeons.

She also saved the Timorese president and his guard after they were shot in the head during a coup.

PA Hospital’s Dr Sarah Olson performed the surgery and her colleague Dr Gemma Olsson has strong family ties with the Russell Island community.

But her protege is Dr Gemma Olsson, a similar surname but different spelling, whose family has strong ties to Russell Island and Ms Brown’s family on the island.

“I knew I was in good hands when they mentioned Gemma Olsson whose father is well known and respected on the island,” Ms Brown said.

“But it all happened so quickly and I had the major surgery less than three weeks after I was diagnosed, because the cancer was that deadly.

“It has definitely changed my outlook on life and on the way I view the southern Moreton Bay islands, which are often denigrated and held up as places of crime and poverty.”

Without a joint effort from Russell Island medics, emergency workers and island health staff, Ms Brown said she would not be alive.

Within hours of her diagnosis, island health staff called a water ambulance and QAS staff helped ferry Ms Brown to the mainland where she was picked up in an ambulance and driven straight to PA Hospital.

Dr Gemma Olsson, whose father has strong ties to Russell Island.

Moments before surgery, Ian Olsson, from Russell Island, father to Dr Gemma Ollson, sent Ms Brown a photo of a rose that bloomed on the day of the operation.

To keep her mind healthy and to repay her community and doctors, Ms Brown wants to build a sensory garden on the island to help other patients with brain and cognitive illnesses.

She has applied to Redland City Council for a grant and hopes to get community support for her idea to be built in the community’s Jock Kennedy Park on the island’s foreshore.

“These doctors and island people saved my life with their quick actions and care,” Ms Brown said.

“I want to repay them and I also want to redress the narrative about island life and that the people who live here are not all bad.

“Ian Olsson cemented my faith in a pure act of random kindness by sharing that image of the rose.

“He said it was a gift of life to me and I shared this with Dr Sarah immediately before anaesthesia. It placed me in a place of peace, prayer and gratitude.”

Ms Brown’s prognosis is good but there are still many appointments and much treatment down the road before life returns to the dreamy pace of island life.

And growing a healthy garden will be part of the cure.

Originally published as Russell Island woman’s battle with brain cancer throws spotlight on bayside’s shining intellects