{"id":613648,"date":"2026-09-27T20:02:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T20:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613648\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T20:02:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T20:02:52","slug":"two-brain-tumours-family-crisis-had-profound-impact-on-rebecca-gibney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613648\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Two brain tumours\u2019: Family crisis had \u2018profound impact\u2019 on Rebecca Gibney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three months after the death of her beloved mother<\/a>, former Packed to the Rafters star Rebecca Gibney<\/a> has shared poignant details of another family struggle \u2013 and it\u2019s one she wants you to learn from.<\/p>\n

Taking to Instagram on September 23, Rebecca, 61 \u2013 who was the youngest of six children her late mum Shirley had \u2013 shared a video of her brother Patrick dancing on a dirt road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put this on my story but I\u2019ve watched it so many times it deserves a post,\u201d the star shared in the accompanying caption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my 69-year-old brother Patrick. Diagnosed at 24 with the first of two brain tumours when his wife Annie was pregnant with their first child.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca Rebecca Gibney shared details of her brother\u2019s struggle. (Credit: Intagram\/rebeccagibney_)<\/p>\n

\u201cHis unwavering faith and optimism carried him through and he has been dancing his way through life ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca explained how Patrick and his wife were currently driving across the Nullarbor desert on a roadtrip, where they were \u201chaving the time of their lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are living proof that life begins at 60!\u201d she shared, urging her 252,000 followers to \u201cbe like Patrick\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response, Rebecca\u2019s brother said he felt \u201cso esteemed\u201d to be featured on his famous sibling\u2019s social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnnie and me are absolutely loving this trip and be sure there was more dancing to come\u2026 hopefully not on any main roads!!\u201d he quipped, adding he felt \u201cprivileged and blessed\u201d to have the star as his \u201cbeloved sister\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, insiders tell Woman\u2019s Day just how much Patrick\u2019s struggle impacted his younger sister, and how the loss of her mother has cemented a lesson in her mind.<\/p>\n

\"RebeccaRebecca Gibney shared a video of her brother Patrick dancing during his road trip. (Credit: Instagram\/rebeccagibney_)<\/p>\n

\u201cBec has watched her brother go through things that would have every right to knock the wind out of him, and yet he continues to find reasons to be grateful, to laugh and to keep moving forward,\u201d the insider shares, adding that attitude has had a \u201cprofound impact\u201d on Rebecca.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince losing her mum, Bec now looks at him differently,\u201d the source goes on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about seeing someone you love face such enormous adversity and still choose to embrace life that reminds her of the lessons Shirl tried to teach \u2013 that even in the hardest moments, there is always something to hold on to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Rebecca has spoken emotionally about the 15 years of beatings <\/a>her mother endured at the hands of her husband, and Rebecca\u2019s father, Austin, before he died of a heart attack in 1982 aged 51.<\/p>\n

Despite all she endured, Rebecca previously said Shirley had taught her to \u201calways be kind\u201d, to \u201cfocus on others, be of service, and to be grateful for what I have\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca Rebecca Gibney lost her mum Shirl in June. (Credit: Instagram\/rebeccagibney_)<\/p>\n

\u201cMum overcame so much in her life because she had a deep faith that was unbreakable,\u201d Rebecca shared in a tribute after her mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe believed that life would always get better \u2013 no matter what you are going through. You just have to trust in the knowledge that light will always follow the dark, that good will prevail and love is really all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now a source tells Woman\u2019s Day that Patrick\u2019s approach to adversity is teaching Rebecca something too.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatrick has taught her that positivity isn\u2019t about pretending difficult things don\u2019t happen. It\u2019s about acknowledging them and then asking yourself what you\u2019re going to do with the life you still have. Bec really admires that in him,\u201d the insider shares.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching him survive two brain tumours and continue to approach life with such perspective and fun has been incredibly inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three months after the death of her beloved mother, former Packed to the Rafters star Rebecca Gibney has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69,100843],"class_list":["post-613648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rebecca-gibney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}