Jessica Gillett believed she could beat brain cancer.

“I just knew that I could do it,” she said.

Now the 26-year-old Auburn native is free of the rare growth that doctors discovered in the right temporal lobe of Gillett's brain three years ago. They detected it after Gillett began experiencing fainting spells that were so severe, she was forced to quit her job to spare herself the stress.

Gillett originally attributed her passing out to food poisoning. But once the doctors at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Virginia saw a white spot on her MRI indicating cancer, they were as clueless as she was about the precise nature of her condition.

“I went to three different places before they found out what it really was,” Gillett said.

Gillett eventually learned that her cancer was comprised of two different types: the rare pleomorphic xanthoastrocytma and the even rarer anaplasticastrocytoma. It was ultimately classified by physicians at the National Cancer Institute in Washington as grade-three cancer, on a scale of one to four, with four being the most serious.

“It was probably the worst thing I had ever heard,” said Gillett's mother, Toni Brown, who lives in Auburn. “We were doing a lot of praying and hoping.”

Gillett's treatment consisted of an operation, performed prior to a benefit held for her last year, to remove the growth that Brown describes as lasting for what “seemed like forever.”

That was followed by a year of treatment to ensure that the cancer could not reappear. She took a pill as part of her chemotherapy every day and radiation treatment over the course of six weeks for one hour every day.

“Some days it was a difficult process,” Gillett said. “Every month it would vary. I'd feel fine from the chemo one month but the next month it would make me really sick.”

To help support her treatment, Gillett's family in Auburn organized a benefit pasta dinner last May at the Throop Fire House. Gillett attended with her husband, Eric. The dinner raised funds for her travel expenses from Virginia to doctors' offices in Washington and student loans.

Family from Auburn, such as Gillett's aunt, Mary Moore, would often visit her during the treatment process.

“She's been great through everything, really uplifting,” Moore said. “I don't know where she got all her strength, but she passed it along through her family.”

Due to the rarity of Gillett's cancer, her doctor at the National Cancer Institute had to instruct her other doctors in how to administer her treatment. As of today, she is free of the cancer. Every three months she undergoes an MRI to see if it has returned, but Gillett is confident it will not.

“The doctors said there's always a chance it could come back but because of the radiation and the chemo, there's a good chance it couldn't,” she said.

Since her recovery, Gillett has obtained her real estate license and currently works as a real estate agent in her home of Virginia Beach. She lives there with Eric, who serves in the U.S. Navy.

The two met while attending school in Port Byron. Once they graduated, Jessica spent a semester at SUNY Oswego while Eric was stationed in Norfolk. But she soon enrolled in nearby Old Dominion University, where she would complete a degree in sociology.

“They were meant to be, so she followed him,” Brown said.

Eric has since been by his wife's side throughout her illness.

As she continues to recover from her battle with cancer, Gillett has come to see it as a case of, “Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.”

“I feel great,” she said.