Kellie Finlayson opens up about her terminal cancer: 'If I'm alive, I might as well live'

A young mother and the wife of AFL star Jeremy Finlayson, Kellie Finlayson, has opened up about her battle with terminal bowel cancer. 

Speaking on Ant Middleton's Nova podcast Head Game, Kellie candidly revealed the reality behind her heartbreaking diagnosis.

In 2021, she was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, just three months after giving birth to her daughter Sophia. 

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"My thoughts were complete mush. I was in complete denial," she said.

"I'd never heard of cancer and had it linked to anyone younger than my grandparents." 

The new mum said she had to keep it together not just for herself but also her family.

"I kind of had to try and process that, while also trying to keep my head strong, funnily enough, so that my husband didn't crumble, because I needed him to be able to parent as well," she said. 

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Kellie detailed her intense treatment journey, which included a type of chemo she had an allergic reaction to, as well as a stoma bag.

"I lost a s*** ton of weight. I mean, I had a stoma, so I had a foreign object on my stomach. I wasn't the normal mum that she should have had, but I was as good as I possibly could be. It was hard," she said. 

"I was allergic to one of the strands of that chemotherapy, which is why, when I did relapse, I had to change chemotherapy, which meant I lost my hair.

"I was on my deathbed. I was getting anaphylactic reactions every three weeks to this chemotherapy. So I was essentially dying every three weeks, just to get better."

Sadly for Kellie, the news went from bad to worse.

"Then in December that year, so a few months later, I was relapsed, and it was in my lung, it was in my pelvis, it was in my stomach, it was everywhere."

When asked if it was still there, she shared: "I mopped that all up with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Was doing really well, was really stable but I've never been 'no evidence of disease' since then, but I've been really stable and being able to live a life like an actual life, and not being on my deathbed each week. 

"My new oncologist has just managed to, I guess, make sure quality of life is also met, knowing that I'm going to be living with this for the rest of my life likely."

As for how she is coping? Kellie says she is just focusing on living and not taking things day-by-day because she doesn't want her life "defined by the disease".

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"I know that it's a huge portion of who I am, and I have to be near my doctors and I need to be close to a hospital, whatever it may be," she explained. 

"But I really pride myself in thriving with cancer. I do everything that I possibly can. I'm still working, I'm still advocating for this disease that I'm quite literally being treated for.

"I am still parenting really quite well. I'm doing all the things that a normal parent would do for the most part, and I feel like if I lived each day or day-by-day, then I'm doing a disservice.

"Like I'm not, I really, I guess, want to make sure that I'm alive for a reason… if I'm alive, I might as well live."

Kellie concluded: "I'm living on borrowed time. I need to make the most of it."

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