She did not have brain cancer. She had a benign tumor that was surgically removed.

I think the main delay is probably turnaround time on later prototypes. It takes a while to get something custom made, get injection molds done, get a prototype out of them, so like the idea is that she would have been working on this for 3 years, but not constantly on it for free years.

Getting anything done with custom PCBs is the same sorta design, order, wait, assemble, test, repeat process. So while it may take 50~250 hours of work to make just the electrical portion of a DEF CON badge, that 50~250 hours may take place over 6 months.

It's so nice she got over it! She's really like a sunshine

Oh yes and that! Must've been a terrible experience. So yeah, "3 years" is a little click-baity, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do for marketing.