Marion, as the Principal of Midas Home Loans & Midas Financial Planning is testament that we can all be, who and what we want to be. The achievement of what we dare to dream is always within your own hands if you’re willing to work hard and have a go.
Marion is the second of 3 children to a Mount Gambier farming couple. As a child, she endured prolonged hospital stays and on more than one occasion was not expected to survive. She developed rheumatic fever at the age of 8 (initially diagnosed as leukemia). This took a terrible toll on her as a child, leaving Marion having to learn to walk again and build her strength in the hope that she could avoid heart valve replacement surgery. In her early twenties, Marion suffered the misfortune of contracting Salmonella poisoning, which saw her in Intensive Care with months of struggling to regain her health. The salmonella poisoning left a degree of damage and Marion had the misfortune to develop Crohn’s Disease.
Through all of this, Marion doggedly, refused to give in and grew up being known for her incredible smile, kind gentle soul and an extreme passion for life itself. Marion just keeps smiling and always has a kind word for those around her. She is enchanting and I frequently see people that are attracted to her very aura or life-force.
As a young Mother, Marion’s health issues unfortunately continued when she was found to have developed Hypothyroidism and soon after be one of only a handful in Australia to be diagnosed with a rare condition known as Cold Induced Urticaria. In short, this means she is allergic to the cold or cool conditions. Her immunologist stressed for her to ‘heed his warning’ and remain vigilant. He knew of other patients that didn’t take the diagnosis seriously and died as a result. Marion remains vigilant and is aware of her surroundings and weather extremes at all times. Shopping in the cold aisles at the supermarket proves very difficult. Similarly, holidaying at the snow is impossible for her. The luxury of swimming in cool waters of a river or ocean is nothing more than a memory for her.
However, Marion exudes good health and vitality and feels blessed in so many areas of her life, which notably include her unique abilities to help and assist others to achieve their desired goals. Marion takes her clients ambitions seriously and shows fierce and passionate determination, setting their path as a safe yet financially and emotionally rewarding one. It’s these very abilities and personal attributes that Marion has become known for.
A born fighter, Marion wanted to be the best she could possibly be, in order to achieve her dreams. Memories of growing up include her Father (Dene Kilsby) stating on more than one occasion “Marion, your gender is of no consequence,” along with many other gems of wisdom that all parents naturally bestow on their children. As such, Marion is of the belief that her achievements would always be about putting in maximum effort in order to attain her desired results or goals.
Marion was educated at the local country primary school (Moorak Primary School-maximum of 100 students) and then the Mount Gambier High School. She started work in the financial arena in 1974 (ANZ Bank) and married her first husband in 1977. It was at around this time while employed with the ANZ that Marion and her husband bought their own farm on 108 acres. This took up a lot of Marion’s time after hours as a lot of the farm work and maintenance required was quite intensive. A passionate gardener and no shrinking violet, Marion determinedly set about establishing a 2 acre garden. Single handedly, she pushed, pulled and coerced hundreds of railway sleepers around to form the gardens borders to create a garden of great beauty. Moving railway sleepers is heavy going, but in her words “It’s all about mathematics and the law of gravity”.
Marion’s most extreme passion is her children (Sarah and Simon) and like all great Mums, she remains devoted. Unfortunately, Marion’s marriage failed. Marriage breakdowns are always heart wrenching, incredibly sad affairs. However, on her career front, Marion had only recently left secure employment in order to establish her own business. Marion recalls it as a stressful period in her life, but decided that she would just work harder at making the business work to support her children and give them every opportunity.
After an aborted short business partnership, the new fledgling business of Midas Home Loans was finally born with Marion in sole command. So imagine if you will, a young woman, now a single Mum working full time (often more than 80 hours a week) in a fledgling business, defiant of those who said it couldn’t be done. Raising 2 children and managing a farm all on her own …… enough to make some give up. Well giving up has never made it into Marion’s dictionary and with her strength and determination to succeed unabated, Marion then came up with the idea of studying for a Diploma in Financial Planning which was very much a male dominated industry at the time.
The commitment to make it all happen was enormous. Studying for her Diploma in Financial Planning at times took Marion to Adelaide (5 hours away) with a lot of late night, early morning drives being very much the order of the day. This obviously necessitated a lot of planning to secure the safety and well being of Sarah and Simon at the time, with her Mum (Lorna) providing some much appreciated support, enabling Marion to achieve what many of her peers deemed unachievable at the time.
It can be seen that the challenges for this incredible Lady were many with a multitude of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Not for Marion - She has developed Midas Home Loans & Midas Financial Planning, whereby they continue to go from strength to strength, with Marion’s expertise being sought after nationally.
Our Clients are numerous and widespread, repeatedly speaking of the personal touches bestowed upon them that are clear indications that we really do care and want to assist in helping them achieve their goals. This is the Midas Touch that we feel sets us well and truly apart from our competitors. We’ve deliberately made caring and compassion two of the main cornerstones to the Midas Home Loans & Midas Financial Planning philosophy. Marion believes that in order for her to achieve success, she must help you achieve success first.
I’m proud of my wife, her achievements and her dreams. Marion drives herself, and the Midas team to achieve perfection as professionals in the Financial Services Industry and I have no qualms in recommending her to you “as one of the best”. Marion is the heart of hearts with the FUN factor set to High, and it’s important to remember, that not all Princesses are called Diana!
Trevor Cox
Business Manager.
