AFL star Jeremy Finlayson’s wife Kellie posts brutal cancer update

The wife of AFL star Jeremy Finlayson has shared a heartbreaking post amid her battle with stage four cancer.

Kellie Finlayson has given a heartbreaking insight into her ongoing battle with terminal cancer.

The 28-year-old, who is married to AFL star Jeremy Finlayson, was first diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2021, three months after giving birth to the couples daughter, Sophia. While the disease went on to metastasise in her lungs, until recently, scans had shown her tumour as being stable – meaning that while the cancer was there, it wasn’t active.

In July, Ms Finlayson revealed this was no longer the case – with doctors telling her she would need to commence chemotherapy immediately to slow its spread.

The mum-of-one posted a teary picture of herself to Instagram on Tuesday, detailing the brutal struggles of living with the disease.

“For those wondering if I ever cry … yes I do. Not often and usually due to the collateral that comes with a terminal diagnosis,” the caption overlaying the photo read.

Kellie Finlayson shared a devastating update amid her battle with stage four cancer. Picture: Instagram

“But yes, I am human, some days go get the best of me and I’m a prisoner to my own thoughts.

“While I share a lot, it’s probably just 5 per cent of my whole life on here. There is so much happening behind the scenes, I take 10 steps forward one day and 12 steps back the next.

“I’m positive and grateful to be alive, but some days remind me that this is so far from the life I’d created in my mind as a teenager.

“Sh*t sucks some times (sic). And it feels isolating, I too feel alone, but I know I’m not. And neither are you.”

Jeremy and Kellie Finlayson dressed for the 2023 Brownlow Medal. Picture: Instagram

The couple recently celebrated their daughter Sophia's birthday. Picture: Instagram

It comes after Ms Finlayson and the Port Adelaide star shared they’d had to sell their “forever home” in Adelaide’s northwest so they could move to a location better suited to her treatment.

“This was to be our forever home, but I guess life had other plans,” she told The Advertiser in August.

“It was a really nice space to be in some pretty dark days, but we fairly quickly discovered with the amount of people we needed around me, and with the room we would need for equipment and machinery, that we needed more space.”

Ms Finlayson said in July that “not even quite a millimetre of (tumour) growth in a scan over couple of months … means it’s growing and that means we have to act on it”.

“Normally I walk out of a meeting with my oncologist and he tells me that we’re happy to watch and wait. Not the case today,” she said in an Instagram video.

“I guess I’m one of the lucky ones because we know chemotherapy works really well for me, but any chemotherapy is f**ked and not what I want to be doing.”

Ms Finlayson was told she immediately had to resume chemotherapy to stop her cancer’s spread. Picture: Instagram

While chemotherapy can help stop the spread of Ms Finlayson’s cancer, she said a “full cure is unlikely” for her.

In a previous interview with Mamamia, she described her past experience undergoing chemotherapy as “the worst time of my life”.

“Nobody knows the extent of treatment and how hard it is unless you’ve done it. Many people keep the pain to themselves, because you don’t want your family to feel guilty,” she said.

Explaining it to her husband, Ms Finlayson added, “was the hardest thing I ever had to do”.

Originally published as AFL star Jeremy Finlayson’s wife Kellie posts brutal cancer update