With a great football career this far and winning 3 straight championships W-League with Melbourne City, being named to Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Team of the Decade, her biggest challenge yet was to be being diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma in February 2021. She was very open and forthcoming on her social media channels and with her blog ‘Beat It’ by Stotty. She also wrote this before playing her first game after beating cancer. ”When kick-off comes around, it will be 135 days since I found out I was in remission, 294 days since my cancer diagnosis was confirmed, 348 days since I last played professional football and 622 days since I last represented this great club.” After successfully beating cancer, she’s back on the pitch, both with her team Melbourne City and with the national team for the She BelievesCup in the US.
– I’m so excited to be back with the Ferns, I’ve missed my teammates and representing New Zealand. To be able to represent your country is so special and something that I will never take for granted. It’s everything I’ve worked towards over the past few months and I just can’t wait to be back out there. I think it’ll be quite emotional but I can’t wipe the smile off my face, says Rebekah Stott.