Sweet Caroline

Peace of Mind Foundation was created in honour of Caroline Maree Matthews.

Caroline was a fun-spirited, strong and brave young woman that touched the lives of all those who knew her. She was a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter and certainly a terrific friend to many people! She worked as a registered nurse in radiology and ironically this is how she came to discover that she had a brain tumour. She had just recently started working in the MRI department and the Radiographer on duty suggested it would be a good idea to perform an MRI on Caroline so she would know what the experience felt like. Upon conducting the MRI the radiographer instantly could see that their was an abnormality and he immediately consulted the head doctors in that department. The following day herself and her husband Clinton, (Director of Peace of Mind Foundation) were brought in for a meeting and were told that Caroline had a malignant brain tumour (Oligodendroglioma) the size of a fist!

After her initial brain operation and rehabilitation, Caroline lived quite a normal happy life for the next four years. Clinton and her bought a family home and she was able to return to her job as a nurse, something that she was extremely passionate about. She always possessed a very caring nature and this shone through in her work. On the 29th of May 2010, Clinton and Caroline had a baby boy named Benjamin Mark, and they were very proud first time parents. Nevertheless, one month later Caroline went for her regular MRI scan and the tumour had showed signs of progression.

After three operations (one performed by Dr Charlie Teo), considerable rehabilitation, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy, nothing would stop the strength of this tumour. It would continue to re-surface and grow at rapid speed. On the 29th of December 2011 Caroline’s battle with brain cancer came to an end. It was the day of her 32nd Birthday.

Caroline will forever be missed, but her memory still lives on in her son, Benjamin and in the heart of this foundation.

How we came up with the name Peace of Mind Foundation - by Clint Matthews (co-founder)

Many people have asked us in the past where did we come up with the name ‘Peace of Mind’ Foundation….. Well this is the story… 

We created this foundation in honour of my wife Caroline who passed away on the day of her 32nd Birthday from brain cancer. One of our love songs (and her favourite) was “Beautiful in my Eyes” by Joshua Kadison, so in fitting tribute I made sure it was played at her funeral. 

When the time came 2 years later for my sister and I to start this charity organisation, Bec and I were trying very hard to think of a suitable name that would in some way have a part of Caroline in it, but not wanting to call it anything like ‘The Caroline Matthews Foundation’. We spent hours on this, but could’n’t think of anything!! Bec (having her beliefs in God) then prayed for help to come up with the right name, and straight away had a thought pop into her head to go and listen to Caroline’s favourite song (she had not listened to this song in over 2 years since the funeral because it made her too sad). She went and put the song on, and the very first line was “You’re my PEACE OF MIND”…..we both knew straight away that this would be the name for our foundation. 

Here is my wife’s song: