Wife of AFL star bravely shares new update on her grueling battle with cancer and the moment she told her husband how serious it was: ‘It’s only a matter of time, Jez’
- Young mother Kellie Finlayson has terminal cancer
- Her husband, AFL star Jeremy, “cried” when she told him
- She is undergoing management chemotherapy
Young mum Kellie Finlayson has shared the poignant moment as she told her AFL star husband, Jeremy, about her terminal cancer diagnosis.
Ms Finlayson, 27, first discovered in November 2021 that she had a tennis ball-sized tumor in her gut.
After a year of intensive treatment, the mother of one child thought she had beaten cancer once and for all, but a scan of her breast revealed another large tumor.
Now Ms. Finlayson is undergoing treatment to control the size of the stage four terminal tumor and hopes to go into remission one day.
She remembered the moment doctors realized the tumor had spread beyond her lungs and throughout her body.
Kellie Finlayson (pictured with AFL star husband Jeremy on their wedding day) has been diagnosed with terminal cancer
Ms Finlayson (pictured with daughter Sophia) said when she told her husband about her cancer on the car journey home from a breast scan, he “pulled over the car and just cried”
“(The doctor) showed me where it had spread, he turned the computer over and the cancer was everywhere. It was in my pelvis, through my stomach, my lymph nodes and into my stomach lining,” Ms Finlayson told the Announce sun on Saturday.
“Jeremy didn’t know what to look for. He was in the room with me and he said, “Why are you so scared? You’ve seen this a million times before, what’s different?”.
“It wasn’t until I got in the car with him… that I broke down and told him how bad it was and how little they could do for me. “It’s everywhere, it’s only a matter of time Jez”.
“He just shut up, pulled over the car and just cried.
“It was harder for him to hear it from me than it was for him to hear it from someone else. He knew I understood what it all meant and I told him what it meant. He just cried and cried.’
The 27-year-old explained that she is now undergoing a new chemotherapy treatment that still allows her to have a high quality of life, while the aggressive ‘poison’ is killing her cancer.
She said her cancer is “responding well” to treatment and she hopes it will eventually grow small enough to be removed through surgery.
Still, there are no guarantees as to how long she’s been gone.
“I just don’t know how long I have left. I don’t know how aggressively this disease is going to take over my body,” she said.
The mother of one child said she is hopeful the treatment will help her see her daughter’s 21st birthday (pictured Ms Finlayson and her daughter Sophia)
Ms Finlayson said her biggest fear is that her family will see cancer exhaust her.
“I’m afraid for (my family) to see me deteriorate. I feel sorry for them that they will have that image of me,” she said.
‘I saw my 80-year-old grandmother die. What I remember of her isn’t the real woman, so I’m afraid they won’t remember the real me.’
However, Ms. Finlayson has remained a beacon of positivity throughout her treatment.
She is determined to enjoy the life she has left as much as possible and hopes to see as many milestones as possible from her daughter Sophia.
“As long as[the cancer]is maintained, I feel like I have the potential to live quite a long life.” I saw Sophia’s 21st birthday!” she said.
“I hope I see her first day of school. That will take another four years, which of course isn’t that long, but it’s longer than I expected when I first heard the diagnosis.’