Kellie Finlayson has revealed she has no plans for a traditional funeral, saying she wants her loved ones to celebrate her life rather than mourn her death as she continues her battle with stage four bowel cancer.
The author and influencer, who has lived with terminal cancer for five years, said she has already put her affairs in order and made her wishes clear to family and friends.
‘I’ve got everything in place and I don’t want a funeral,’ Finlayson told News Corp.
‘It’s one thing that I do not want and if that happens, I’ll haunt everyone,’ she laughed.
‘So spread my ashes somewhere or whatever, but I don’t want a funeral and I’ve definitely made that known to anyone that needs to know it and obviously I’ve got things in place financially – everything’s got to go to where it’s got to go and I’ve done that myself – if I can have control of one thing, it’s going to be that.’
The wife of former Port Adelaide player Jeremy Finlayson has become one of Australia’s most recognisable advocates for bowel cancer awareness since she was diagnosed shortly after giving birth to daughter Sophia in 2021.
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Now 30, Finlayson has outlived her original prognosis by around three years and continues to undergo intensive treatment, including chemotherapy every three weeks and daily medication.
Earlier this month, she underwent another lung resection after the cancer spread to her lungs in late 2022.
After the surgery, she reassured supporters with an update on Instagram.
‘Thank you so so so much to everyone that has checked in,’ she wrote.
‘Surgery went well, will talk about it more when I can keep my eyes open.’
Despite the ongoing treatment, Finlayson said her daughter Sophia has been the driving force behind her determination to keep fighting.
‘I would never tell her, not until she’s older at least, but she’s definitely been the reason that I’ve made it this far,’ she said.
‘You can’t exactly say no to this perfect little human being saying, ‘Mummy, I want to play.’
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Finlayson revealed why she chose a second oncologist, believing that decision ultimately helped save her life
‘So she got me out of bed on days that I definitely didn’t want to get out of bed.’
Finlayson said she now considers herself ‘one of the lucky ones’ because her treatment continues to work.
‘I’m pretty good at it,’ she said of chemotherapy.
‘Which is a weird thing to say, but I guess lucky that treatment works for me. So I have three-weekly infusions and then I have chemo tablets daily, morning and night.’
She also revealed she ignored the advice of her first oncologist after suffering a relapse in early 2023, believing a different approach gave her the chance to continue living a full life.
‘And if I had listened to my first oncologist, literally, if I’d listened to everything he’d said, I’d be dead by now, which is crazy,’ she said.
‘I would have been in palliative care like three years ago.’
Instead, she sought a second opinion and later married Jeremy in a low-key ceremony after the couple had initially postponed their wedding when the cancer spread.
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The pair have also endured the heartbreak of seven unsuccessful IVF embryo transfers while trying to give Sophia a sibling.
‘We actually had seven failed transfers, so it was a really tough 16 months,’ Finlayson said.
‘Obviously things didn’t work, but that’s fine … it ended up costing me more mentally than it was worth.’
Finlayson said she deliberately keeps conversations about her illness separate from family life at home.
‘Home is not the hospital and hospital is where those conversations happen and home is where it’s just us living,’ she said.
She also prefers talking about a ‘living list’ rather than a bucket list.
‘That’s because I don’t want to kick the bucket,’ she joked.
Her focus now is on using her experience to encourage younger Australians to pay attention to their health and seek medical advice if something feels wrong.
‘But I’ve got so many things in the works,’ she said.
‘I just want to be in front of rooms of people that haven’t heard me speak before so that they take themselves a little bit more seriously and that’s kind of the aim this year.’
While Finlayson admits there are difficult days, she remains determined to make the most of the time she has.
‘I say I’m one of the lucky ones because treatment works for me,’ she said.
‘I am genuinely one of the lucky ones.’
