Kellie Gardner, the fiancé of Port Adelaide player Jeremy Finlayson, has opened up on her heartbreaking terminal lung cancer diagnosis, just months after beating bowel cancer.
Finlayson and Gardner moved to South Australia upon Finlayson's trade to Port Adelaide from GWS at the end of 2021, with Gardner soon finding out she had a tumour in her colon.
Speaking on The Soda Room podcast, Gardener opened up on her original diagnosis and the anger she felt.
“We moved into our apartment on the seventh, and I got diagnosed on the 17th of November,” Gardner said.
“In terms of coping after getting this diagnosis, we were just in denial, to be honest. You hear ‘cancer' and you attach it to a 60-year-old — you don't attach it to a 25-year-old.
“I was quite healthy, ran marathons, just had a baby so clearly had not many problems. I was a fit, young mum. You just don't attach (cancer) to that.
“We only had 24 hours between diagnosis and surgeon's office, who went through everything and made plans for every other scan and procedure we had to do before we had exact diagnosis.
“We just had to lean on family. I was an angry woman.”
After going through treatment, Gardner received the news that the cancer had shrunk and was eventually removed.
“We went to Hawaii to celebrate because we'd made it through such a pretty shitty year,” Gardner said.
“My surgeon was great, he was all optimistic. He will tell you that it's not all 100 per cent likelihood of it not coming back, but he was very optimistic with everything going forward, so, I was, in my head (thinking), ‘I'm good'. And if not, I'm in good hands.”
Just weeks ago though, the couple were told that a cancerous mass was discovered in Kellie's lungs, leading to a terminal lung cancer diagnosis.
“My cancer that was in my colon had metastasised and spread to my lungs,” Gardner said.
“I was angry, that was probably the main emotion. The other was scared; not for myself, but for Sophia and Jez.
In the aftermath of the diagnosis, Gardner is raising awareness of bowel cancer and urging people to get checked if they feel like something is wrong.
“If I had got it checked,” Gardner said.
“If I had got all of my tummy problems checked and not just been thinking I had a lactose intolerance like every other Joe, Dick and Harry these days. If I had got it checked.
“You hear cancer and you attach it to a 60-year-old. You don't attach it to a 25-year-old who is quite healthy, who runs marathons and who just had a baby.
“I was a fit, young mum. You just don't attach it to that.
“Like I was a fit young mum. You just don't attach it to that. I was an angry woman.”
