Kellie Finlayson shares emotional update about the challenges she faces following terminal cancer diagnosis

Daily Mail​

02-07-2025

Kellie Finlayson has revealed the emotional challenges of dealing with her terminal cancer diagnosis in a candid new interview.
The AFL WAG, 29, who is married to Port Adelaide star Jeremy Finlayson, is battling stage four bowel and lung cancer and has undergone thoracic surgery in recent months.
She was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021 and revealed in 2022 that the illness had spread to her lungs.
Appearing on the Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast's Safe Space series, Kellie, who was promoting her new memoir There Must Be More, said that she was 'thriving' in the wake of her diagnosis.
When Jess asked Kellie what she meant by 'thriving', she said it was all about changing her frame of mind.
From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.
'It completely comes from mindset,' she said.
'I feel like I still live each day the same as that I used to, if not with more life, if that makes sense,' she said.
'I turned a really s***ty situation into a pretty incredible one and a really powerful one with a lot of purpose.'
Kellie added that one of the challenges of battling cancer could be how the diagnosis robs the sufferer of agency.
'We don't get many choices when we're diagnosed. We get start this treatment or die, essentially. They're your options - get really, really sick from this treatment, or don't be here anymore,' she said.
Kellie added that one choice still in front of her was how she chose to fight the disease emotionally.
'The only choice I guess I did have was how I responded to that and how I almost copped it on the chin – like an insult,' she said.
'[I] got on with life and did the things I could do to make each day okay initially and now great.'
'It completely comes from mindset,' she said. 'I feel like I still live each day the same as that I used to, if not with more life, if that makes sense.'
Jess then asked Kellie if she had ever experienced "why me?" moments with the WAG replying that, it all comes down to mindset.
'I've had my "why me?" moments obviously. If I hadn't I'd be a bloody psychopath,' she admitted.
'It did take me a little bit of time, but I realised that I could flip that and have more of the 'why not me?' approach.
'Multiple people are diagnosed every single day with this exact cancer. Why shouldn't it be me? Why shouldn't it be someone that can give so much purpose to it? Someone that can thrive with it?
'Why should it be an 80-year-old woman that is so frail that she'll probably last three months and give us another bad statistic?'
Kellie's candid admission comes after she recently gave a heartbreaking insight into what she thinks about while undergoing chemotherapy.
Speaking with Woman's Day in April, she revealed there's a moment in the memoir where she writes about a time she 'didn't want to wake up' and 'asked the nurses to turn off the machines'.
'I talk about the days I didn't want to wake up and a time I asked nurses to turn off the machines. There are emotions there Jeremy didn't even know I had,' Kellie told the magazine.
'It was a very naked feeling when it was released but it's also the best thing I've ever done. People can understand where I've been.'
In March, Kellie revealed she had undergone a VATS procedure to remove a piece of tissue from her lungs. VATS stands for Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery, which is a form of keyhole surgery.
She revealed that doctors had removed metastatic tissue from her lungs.
Metastatic tissue occurs when cancer cells spread from a primary tumour to other areas in the body to form new tumours.
The young mum published a clip of herself lying in a hospital bed, writing: 'Me a week ago'.
In the next frame, Finlayson looked bright and well, sharing a brief clip of two scars on the left side of her rib cage following the surgery.
'Just over a week ago I was having a VATS wedge resection on my right lung to remove Mets and send off tissue to pathology in hope for more answers/better treatment plans,' Kellie captioned the video.
'I've had soooo many people checking in to see how I'm doing, thank you!!!
'And honestly, I'm so fine. Which I know is incredible given the major surgery I've just undergone and I know not everyone is as lucky. But hey, I'll take the wins when I can get them in this never-ending experience.'
Kellie and Jeremy tied the knot in March 2023, in an intimate ceremony at South Australia's Tennyson Beach.
They share daughter Sophia, three, who was born in 2021, just months before Kellie was first diagnosed.