Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath's wife Jane partly owes her life to former Australian captain Steve Waugh, who helped her in curing a cancerous brain tumour her doctors feared was inoperable.

Jane, speaking for the first time about her battle with the disease and how she faced her own mortality, said Waugh had recommended a neurosurgeon the day she was told the tumour could not be operated because it was near her visual cortex.

"I'd just heard that an operation wasn't feasible," Jane said.

"The thought of radiotherapy was familiar, something I knew about and I thought I don't want someone cutting my head open, but out of respect for Steve, I took the number," she told The Australian Women's Weekly.

The 40-year-old Jane called the neurosurgeon, who advised her that the tumour could be removed and the operation was a success.

Jane recalled her anguish and fear about the cancer treatment at the discovery of a brain tumour, 10 years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, which saw her fast-bowling husband step down from international cricket for eight months.

"Hearing that you have breast cancer is awful. And hearing that you have a secondary cancer in your hip is terrifying. But to hear that after all that you have a brain tumour, that's about the only thing that could be worse," she was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I did face my own mortality. This was far worse for me than the other times. You conjure up all sorts of awful situations in your head," she added.