'A blessing to be here': Before competing in Family Feud, this Hay River mom survived cancer and bone disease

Always say yes, unless it's dangerous. That's been Kelsey Townend's life motto since she successfully finished cancer treatment in 2016.

And that's how the Hay River, N.W.T., resident and her family found themselves on Family Feud Canada, competing for a chance to win $10,000, after a producer who followed her cancer journey on Instagram reached out to her.

"At first, I kinda thought it was a scam. I didn't think it was real," she said. "But the more I talked to her and got to know her, I thought, what the heck."

It was 2021 when her family first auditioned. The timing was perfect: she was coming up on the five-year anniversary of her cancer journey, and she wanted to honour that somehow. What better way than competing on a national game show?

"Any opportunity now that I can get to do something exciting or different or just totally out there, I'm on board," she said. "When you experience something like I did, you realize how short life can be."

After she talked four of her family members into it, they auditioned over Zoom. The team, which she described as her "beautiful blended family," included her little brother, her stepfather, her oldest son's stepmother and her former sister-in-law.

"I think when they heard that and seen us in the audition, how well we get along and the fun we had, I think they really liked that," she said.

Although they were all super nervous, she said they had a blast participating in the show, especially after the second round when they relaxed a bit more and got into competitive mode. She said she has received a hugely positive response from the community.

"Tons of positive feedback, everybody was super excited," She said. "Anybody that I've talked to is like, 'You guys were so great!' and 'How fun!'"

Her family held a viewing party at their house for their episode, which aired March 14.

She said one main reason she wanted to do the show was to collect "cool points" with her three sons, who are four, 13 and 15 years old, and who are now pretty proud that their mom was on national television.

"At the end of it, they were all like, 'Oh you actually weren't too embarrassing,'" Townend laughed. "That was cool."

But going on the show was also a great opportunity to showcase the community she loves.

"Living in Hay River, we wanna help promote our community. We love our community," she said. "Anything to help promote it and help put it on the map, I'm all about it."