Footballer Rhali Dobson went viral earlier this year when she had a surprise marriage proposal in her final game before retiring to care for her brain cancer-stricken partner. Now she's tackling the day-to-day battle alongside him and embarking on a mission to raise much-needed funds for brain cancer research.
In March Dobson's fiancé Matt Stonham proposed to the Melbourne City star following her last W-League game. At 28, the striker who had represented Australia at the highest level with the Matildas, had chosen to prematurely hang up the boots to be by his side as he prepared to face his second fight against brain cancer.
But she had no idea what he had planned.
"It's unbelievable how viral it went around the world," Dobson told Wide World of Sports on the emotional moment when Stonham dropped to one knee after the match and asked her to marry him.
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In tears, she said "Yes", they embraced, and Dobson was mobbed by teammates and loved ones. Dobson turned 29 in April and is now plotting her next move in life, with much of her time devoted to supporting Stonham.
"No-one has judged me at all in regards to making the decision to retire early and the reasons behind it," she said.
"But with retirement it opens up opportunities to move into developing the game for female football even further. It's also enabled us to educate the wider community on how prevalent brain cancer is. It's a massive area that requires a lot of research and it's one of the leading causes of mortality, so we need to be more proactive in that field of research, in prevention and cure."
To help achieve that goal, Dobson has signed up to take part in The Big Three, a 150km trek over three days from Sydney to Newcastle, which is raising funds for the Mark Hughes Foundation, coinciding with the NRL's Beanie for Brain Cancer round.
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Starting today, Dobson and around 30 other sports stars and celebrities will be embarking on the monster walk from NRL headquarters in Moore Park to McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle in time to watch Hughes' former team the Knights play their Round 15 match on Saturday afternoon.
Hughes, who was first diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013, began the foundation a year after his tumour showed no further growth, and the organisation has since sold over 500,000 beanies, raising millions of dollars for brain cancer research and funded brain cancer nurses in regional Australia.
With Dobson and her fiancé calling Maitland home in the Hunter region where Hughes made a name for himself in footy, they are one of the many families that have benefited from a nurse sponsored by the foundation.
"We're so fortunate that the Mark Hughes Foundation have got us with a great nurse who helps us out with everything and provides us with a lot of great education and support," Dobson said.
"The foundation is a cause that's very close to my heart.
"We buy the beanies every year. It's amazing how the community gets behind it. It doesn't take time out of your day to support and be a part of – just buy a beanie. It's great to see how communities and sports collaborate."
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Stonham's brain cancer battle has begun again six years after he was first diagnosed with a stage two glioma following a shock seizure on a soccer field. After their world was turned upside down, he had surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible without affecting his speech and right side of his body movement, and with treatment they were able to bring the tumour under control.
But a routine check-up earlier this year revealed the tumour had returned with greater activity. Another surgery was performed to remove more of it, however tests showed it had developed into a stage three brain tumour.
Dobson explained the exhausting road ahead for the couple before their wedding takes place in December next year.
"We've faced this once before, so we'll do it again. We're stronger together than we are apart so it's nothing we can't manage moving forward," she said.
"He's doing really well. He finished radiation and has started chemotherapy. He's enjoyed the three-and-a-half week period in between treatment, not needing to go anywhere or do any treatment and enjoy a beer or two before chemotherapy treatment for 48 weeks.
"Radiation was Monday to Friday, and initially I was taking him everyday to radiation treatment, and we were there for 30 minutes and the treatment itself takes about 15 minutes.
"The chemotherapy this time around is really unknown, because he's on six-week cycles and different chemotherapy drugs. So it's really unknown how he's going to react it.
"He's already lost all his hair from radiation, he will have nausea, an ulcerated mouth, sickness and fatigue and you also have a lot of nerve damage to his toes and fingers during chemotherapy, which does come back in time, but that in itself can be very frustrating for people and affects your quality of life.
"He hasn't been able to drive from his brain surgeries, so I have to or his parents do all the driving and he finds that very frustrating, feeling like he can't contribute to everyday activities and helping out around the home.
"But it's all in the short term. I think the hardest thing is it's going to be physically and emotionally challenging, and psychologically it's going to take it's toll."
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Even as an occupational therapist herself, Dobson admitted she had rough days too.
"It's something we do deal with but you never really understand what it's like when you're the person going through it or the support person or other half," she said.
"There are days Matt's having a great day but for some reason I'm just having a bad one, when everything builds up. But we're very fortunate to have supportive friends and family around us so we can always ask for help."
For her own mental and physical health, on her fiancé's insistence, Dobson has been able to get back on the football field, albeit at an amateur level, playing in a men's third division team in their hometown Maitland.
And though she said she still yearns for some aspects of professional football, she's found the sport gives her something else now – peace.
"It's actually nice. I haven't felt this peaceful on the field in a long time but I do definitely still miss that high intensity environment physically and mentally, but I think that's something any professional misses when they move out of the game," she said.
"When you move out of it as quickly as I did, the transition was always going to be a bit harder than I anticipated.
"It's quite funny sometimes… they just treat me like another player on the field and that's what I like. You do get the occasional one where they apologise when they tackle or something and I just tell them don't even worry about it. It does not phase me at all. We always have a good laugh out there."
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