Onesies

The Onesies

Pina and Kellie are cousins, survivors, and this year, first-time participants in Marilyn’s — not just to raise vital funds for the Cancer Council, but to celebrate the fact that they are still here.

Their reason is deeply personal.

Pina was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022. Kellie followed in 2023. Within a year of each other, both women found themselves navigating a reality no one is ever prepared for — mastectomies, chemotherapy, radiation, and the long, gruelling road that follows. Treatment was relentless. Recovery was anything but linear. And yet, here they stand — choosing laughter, connection, and purpose.

Cancer, sadly, was not new to their family. Long before their own diagnoses, they witnessed its devastating reach. Pina’s mum bravely underwent breast cancer treatment years earlier, and in 1994, they lost their beloved Aunty Maree.

“We watched our beautiful Aunty Marie go from being the life of the party — always the first one on the dance floor — to enduring years of brutal treatment until cancer finally took her,” they share. “She was far too young.”

That history made their own diagnoses confronting, but it also lit a fire.

As mothers — Pina and Kellie are deeply aware of what survivorship truly means. Life doesn’t simply ‘return to normal’ after chemo and radiation. Instead, it becomes a new normal — one shaped by permanent body changes, ongoing treatments that last for years, and long-term side effects that can be life-altering.

They speak openly about the toll cancer takes — not just on the body, but on families, friendships, relationships, careers, and self-identity. About feeling robbed of femininity. About hair loss — Pina bravely shaving her head as it began to fall, while Kellie chose to let every strand go in her own time. About the emotional weight of watching their loved ones carry the fear alongside them.

Today, both women are back at work and rebuilding life with strength and perspective. Pina has returned to the classroom as a primary school science teacher. Kellie is back supporting clients as a mortgage broker. They are living proof that survivorship is not the end of the story — it’s the beginning of a louder, more purposeful one.

Through Marilyn’s, Pina and Kellie hope to raise funds, awareness, and crucial conversations — about knowing your body, advocating for yourself, and the need for earlier breast screening. Because treatment doesn’t end when the hospital visits slow, and because early detection saves lives.

This Pool Swim is about honouring the past, supporting those still in the fight, and showing their daughters — and every woman watching — that strength, joy, and hope can exist even after cancer.

And yes, there will be laughter along the way — because surviving deserves to be celebrated.

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