The stunning couple originally planned to get married in October but brought the wedding forward because of the bride’s heartbreaking cancer diagnosis.
In a surprise wedding this weekend, Port Adelaide Footballer, Jeremy Finlayson tied the knot with his sweetheart, Kellie Gardner.
According to Daily Mail, “The brave bride tied the knot with Port Adelaide’s Jeremy Finlayson, both 27, in an intimate ceremony at South Australia’s Tennyson Beach on Sunday afternoon in front of 21 close friends and family.”
After successfully beating the deadly disease in the past, unfortunately, her cancer came back.
“She was first diagnosed with bowel cancer aged 25 – three-and-a-half months after her daughter Sophia was born. Kellie received a year of chemotherapy, radiation and surgeries and her doctors thought the cancer might be gone for good.”
Speaking to 7News, Kellie revealed she was shocked to learn she had cancer.
“We moved into our apartment on the seventh, and I got diagnosed on the 17th of November. 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.”
Adding that she ran marathons before giving birth to her baby girl, Sophia, and was perfectly fit and healthy, Gardener said,
“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,” she recalled.
“We just had to lean on family. I was an angry woman.”
“We went to Hawaii to celebrate because we’d made it through such a pretty shitty year,” she continued.
“My surgeon was great, he was all optimistic. He will tell you that it’s not all 100 percent 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.”
However, in January, the doctors told Kellie that her cancer had returned, and this time, it’s worst – it had spread to her lungs.
“My cancer that was in my colon had metastasized and spread to my lungs,” she told the news outlet.
“I was angry, that was probably the main emotion. The other was scared; not for myself, but for Sophia and Jez.
In another interview with The Advertiser, Gardener said that she wanted to marry her longtime sweetheart while she still has hair on her head.
“I wanted to get married with my hair and I have started losing hair,” the mum-of-one said.
Their wedding ceremony was kept extremely private, and everything occurred in secret that her 19-month-old daughter, Sophia, had no idea what was happening.
“Sophia has no idea, she just knows her favorite people will be in Adelaide for the weekend,” said Kellie.
The beautiful couple wrote their marriage vows separately and surprised each other with their sweet words.
“The smitten couple plans to have a bigger celebration in October when the AFL season ends, with Kellie vowing to beat her diagnosis and be there for her husband and their daughter,” per Daily Mail.
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