Kellie Gardner: Wife of AFL star Jeremy Finlayson shares being diagnosed with bowel cancer at 26

When Kellie Gardner complained to doctors about stomach cramps and severe nausea, they told her it was probably a side effect of her first pregnancy.

After giving birth to her young daughter, Sophie, last year, Kellie hoped the painful symptoms would pass, but three months later they persisted and the alarm bells rang louder than ever.

‘I was in the worst pain of my life. She was constipated, had irregular bowel movements and terrible pain in her abdomen,” she told FEMAIL.

Eventually, a colonoscopy was performed and a tumor the size of a tennis ball was detected, blocking Kellies entire colon.

Tests in November of last year confirmed the tumor to be stage three or potentially stage four colorectal cancer.

The devastating diagnosis turned the lives of Kellie, her AFL star husband Jeremy Finlayson and their newborn girl upside down.

At the time, Kellie, now 27, had just moved to Adelaide from Port Lincoln, while Jeremy had relocated after being traded from GWS Giants to Port Adelaide.

They were juggling their “new normal” lifestyle of being parents, and Kellie longed to spend time bonding with her baby.

“More than anything, I just wanted to be there for Sophie, but some days I couldn’t. I missed a lot of special moments and memories because she was in and out of the hospital,” she said.

On December 6, 2021, Kellie completed her 26th year in the hospital and began treatment shortly thereafter.

He stopped working and his mother also quit her job to help take care of Sophie while Jeremy continued to play football.

Kellie said that she had “never heard of cancer without death.”

‘I was at the bottom. He was angry because he felt that he was not fair. My initial thoughts were that I would lose my hair to chemotherapy and that my partner would be a single parent if I didn’t make it,” he said.

“After the colonoscopy, when they told me it was cancer, I took Sophie out of the nurse and just wanted to hold her for as long as I could.”

Two weeks after the prognosis, Kellie underwent surgery to insert a colostomy bag to divert food from her intestine. She then began chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

“I was in denial for the first two or three months afterward and hadn’t processed what was happening,” he said.

Due to the severity of the cancer, the doctors needed to start treatment urgently and there was not enough time to collect eggs for IVF.

“We discussed fertility and IVF before treatment began to collect eggs for a trial, but it was not feasible and would have delayed chemotherapy,” Kellie said.

“If the cancer was at an early stage, three doctors would have been more lenient, but it had already started to spread down my back.

“I remember Jeremy saying we couldn’t take any chances and I need to start treatment instead of considering options to grow our family.”

Over Christmas and into the next year, Kellie began treatment, followed by chemotherapy in February 2022 for six months.

Ultimately, Kellie was left infertile.

“All my plans to have a big family that I’ve had since I was a little girl have gone out the window,” she said.

Despite those dashed dreams, Kellie considers herself “lucky” that her cancer responded well to treatment.

‘The hardest part of the whole process was knowing how much I had left at home. It was absolutely devastating,” she said.

“I feel like I was robbed of being a mother: Sophie took her first steps while I was in the hospital, and even when I was home I wasn’t really there, everything felt a blur.”

He then underwent a six-hour operation to remove 25cm of his intestine and surrounding lymph nodes, which required spending 12 nights in hospital to recover, with the first night in intensive care.

The surgery left her bedridden for four weeks and it took her 12 weeks to recover.

Due to her small frame, surgeons discovered that her organs were “fused” to her back, probably as a result of radiation therapy, which lengthened the surgery time.

On September 23, 2022, she underwent a final procedure to reverse her colostomy bag, and it took six weeks for her to “learn” how to use her bowels normally again.

“During that time I couldn’t hold my daughter because my arms were so weak,” she said.

While her progress is encouraging, Kellie has yet to get the go-ahead and has a nervous wait before her checkups in January.

All the treatment that the doctors had prescribed, from chemotherapy to surgery, ‘did its job’, but it is understandable that she is afraid that the cancer will come back.

“I’m so anxious about all this – the easy part was being dealt with, now I need to try and get back to normal life,” she said.

More than anything, he hopes his experiences will make others more diligent about seeing a doctor if they’re in pain, especially since bowel cancer occurs more often in young people.

“It’s not just an older person’s disease,” Kellie said.

‘Many people also do not realize or do not know the cost of medical expenses. Luckily I had health insurance and I went to a private hospital.

‘We spent about $150,000 and Medicare only covered $50,000. But you have no choice but to pay it when your life is in danger.

If you would like to donate to Kellie’s GoFundMe page, Click here.