This veteran thinks his brain cancer is linked to his deployment. He pushed for special benefits — and won

Medals and framed family photos on display in retired major Bruce Mayo's Ottawa living room pay tribute to generations of military service. 

"We are veterans of every conflict that Canada has participated in since 1900," said Mayo, 70, who joined the Canadian Forces as a teenager and later became a military lawyer.

His father was a pilot during the Second World War, his grandfather fought in France during the First World War and his wife, retired major Dr. Sandra West, served as a medical officer in Afghanistan.

While Mayo served overseas, too, his most recent battle has been with the federal department tasked with protecting those who serve, Veterans Affairs Canada.

For two years, he fought to secure "pain and suffering" benefits after being diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM), a terminal brain cancer he believes is linked to his deployment to Southwest Asia almost 25 years ago. 

"I couldn't stop fighting. I'm a trained lawyer and I had a case and I was like a dog with a bone."

Mayo was part of the military police force at Canada’s base in Germany in the 1980s. (Submitted by Bruce Mayo)

Mayo grew up in a small village in eastern Ontario, destined to follow in the family footsteps.

"When I was 18, my mother drove me to the recruiting centre and said, ‘Go in there. You'll be as free as a bird.' Those were her exact words, and it pretty much worked out."

On Sept. 11, 2001, Mayo was the deputy chief advocate at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. 

"Everyone who saw those aircraft fly into those towers knew that the world had changed. We just didn't know quite how," he said.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Canada started to deploy troops as part of its commitment to the U.S. "war on terror."

In the summer of 2002, Mayo became legal adviser at Camp Mirage, a logistics base in the United Arab Emirates that supported Canadian operations in Afghanistan. He served at Camp Mirage for seven months. 

Canadian Forces lawyers Mayo, left, and Randy Callan, right, in Afghanistan in 2002. (Submitted by Bruce Mayo)

Some 20 years later, in July 2023, Mayo was rushed to hospital after a seizure and soon diagnosed with brain cancer. Surgeons removed the tumour, but it's a terminal diagnosis with an average life expectancy of 18 months.

From the outset, Mayo and his wife asked doctors if his cancer could be connected to his deployment. 

No one knew, so Mayo started digging. He joined a Facebook group for people living with GBM and what he discovered stopped him in his tracks. 

"Someone mentioned that the U.S. Veterans Administration had discovered a 26 per cent greater incident rate of GBM among veterans who had served in Southwest Asia. So that area includes Afghanistan, and it also includes Dubai," said Mayo. 

WATCH | Why Bruce Mayo fought for years to receive benefits :

This veteran with cancer spent years fighting for special benefits

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That American research came out in early 2022, about six months before former U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics or PACT Act. One feature of that law is providing expanded veteran benefits by presuming a glioblastoma diagnosis is related to military deployment in Southwest Asia.

American studies cite a number of potential risk factors for various cancers, including burn pits, depleted uranium, fine particulate matter and aircraft fumes. 

Biden's son, Beau Biden, served in Iraq and died of glioblastoma in 2015.

"If you could prove two things, that you had service in Southwest Asia and that you had a GBM diagnosis, they automatically awarded under their scheme 100 per cent disability.  Well, I was gobsmacked when I saw that," said Mayo.

In 2024, citing the U.S. law and research, Mayo applied to Veterans Affairs Canada for special benefits. The monthly amount payable ranges between $500 to $1,500 depending on the scale of a veteran's impairment. 

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, right, talks with his son, U.S. army Capt. Beau Biden, at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, in the summer of 2009. (The Associated Press)

The response was swift.

"It just simply turned me down," said Mayo.

But he wasn't ready to give up. Through social media connections, Mayo found two other Canadian Forces members he'd served with at Camp Mirage during the same time period had recently died of glioblastoma.

Next, Mayo filed an appeal to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, asking it to reconsider his request for special benefits.

He was turned down again. Meanwhile, stories via social media kept coming. 

"I learned of this pattern that emerges over and over again. So someone would serve in Afghanistan, in Southwest Asia, come back, and within a year they were dead of GBM, and they left widows and orphans behind," said Mayo.

Medical oncologist Dr. Garth Nicholas has treated Mayo at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre since 2023. (Robyn Bresnahan/CBC)

Two years into his diagnosis, Mayo took his ever-expanding research to his oncologist, Dr. Garth Nicholas, at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre. 

"He has lived longer than most people with glioblastoma," said Nicholas, remarking on Mayo's impressive cognitive function that's allowed him to keep investigating. 

Nicholas analysed Mayo's research. 

"It's not well understood exactly what their exposures were in that place that led to that, but certainly there seem to be excess cancers in that population compared to the general population," he said.   

Support for an appeal

In a letter, Nicholas supported Mayo's next appeal.

Almost three years after his diagnosis, on May 5, 2026, the veterans appeal board sent him a 12-page decision, granting him the benefits he was requesting and placing him into the Veterans Independence Program. It helps subsidize grounds maintenance, housekeeping and personal care for sick and injured veterans.

"Most GBM patients aren't going to get that much assistance because they're not going to live long enough," he said. 

Sandra West, left, and Mayo at their Ottawa home. (Robyn Bresnahan/CBC)

Luckily, Mayo has outlived his medical prognosis. Plus he had the legal skills to help him succeed. 

"But you shouldn't have to be a blue ribbon candidate to do it," said Mayo. 

His wife, a veteran herself, is frustrated by what became such an onerous process. 

"It angers me when I see someone who is truly deserving of our support being made to jump through all these hoops, being delayed, being disbelieved," said West. 

No precedent set

The decision in Mayo's case doesn't officially set precedent because the Veterans Review and Appeal Board is a quasi-judicial tribunal. Unlike a court, it is not bound by its own decisions. 

Mayo still hopes his case will help others.

"If you have a very similar case they would be hard-placed to turn it down based on the evidence that's in my case," he said. 

But what he'd really like to see is a formal change to government policy.

Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight, centre, meets with members of the Royal Canadian Legion Saskatchewan command. (Kirk Fraser/CBC)

In a statement, Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight said the department continually reviews research on the links between military service and veterans' health outcomes, but she made no mention of any intended policy change, such as the development of a presumptive injury list similar to that of the U.S.

According to Conservative MP Michael Barrett, who is his party's Veterans Affairs shadow minister, this is on the opposition's radar.  

"We've previously called on Veterans Affairs Canada to develop that presumptive injury list," Barrett told CBC in a recent interview. 

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For Mayo, winning his appeal is bittersweet. The benefits will only sooth what is coming since there is no cure for glioblastoma.

"The mantra is it always comes back and it's unpredictable," said Mayo.

It's difficult to talk about, but West says when her husband is gone, his memory will be recognized as a service-related death, now that Veterans Affairs acknowledges his illness stems from his deployment.

While Mayo is grateful for the recognition, that's not why he continued to appeal. 

"I just viewed it just as an inequity that needed to be addressed," he said. "I don't bear any malice towards the military."