By Jenny Brown
Pictures: Grant Turner/mediakoo.
Kerryn stored up memories for her young family before losing the race she most wanted to win.
At the end of her toughest race, marathon champ Kerryn McCann died as she had lived, surrounded by the love of her husband and three children.
Family was the thing this quiet achiever valued most — more than any sporting glory, more than her two hard-won Commonwealth gold medals.
That’s why Kerryn was so determined to beat the aggressive breast cancer, diagnosed when she was six months pregnant with her last child, baby Cooper.
“Of course I’m going to fight, not least because of my beautiful and amazing family,” she said in October, revealing that the disease had spread into her liver. “If I don’t succeed, I want the children simply to know how very much I love them.”
Sadly, however, the Olympian lost her battle late at night on December 7. She had struggled to hang on for one last Christmas with the people she most adored — coalminer husband Greg and their family — but it was not to be.
Aged only 41, Kerryn passed away quietly at home in seaside Coledale, near Wollongong in southern NSW, where she grew up and first discovered a passion for distance running.
Her husband and children, Benton, 11, “princess” Josie, 5, and 14-month-old Cooper, were by her bedside. Heartbreakingly, little Josie later returned there snuggling up under the doona as she cried for her mummy’s return.
“Kerryn fought so hard, she was such a fighter,” grief-stricken Greg, a former Australian surf champion, told well-wishers. “She was surrounded by the love of her family.”
For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale December 15).
The McCanns have asked that flowers not be sent. Instead they welcome donations to the Breast Cancer Network Australia or the McGrath Foundation
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