Six months after receiving a cancer diagnosis Queensland’s Police Commissioner, Steve Gollschewski, is set to return to work after fearing he had “very little time left”.
Gollschewski, 66, had to take leave in February after he was diagnosed with stage four cancer – less than a year after he took the top job.
His cancer had spread from his lungs to his liver, through his bones, and into his brain, with the top cop receiving the devastating news from his GP at a swearing-in ceremony in Townsville, Queensland.
“It was one of those moments where the world kind of stops,” Gollschewski told 7NEWS.
Not wanting to disappoint the new officers and their families, Gollschewski decided to continue with the ceremony.
“I thought that’s it, I’m done. I thought that was the end of me,” Gollschewski said.
“And then my mind turned to supporting my family.”
After a month-long ordeal of tests and scans, Gollschewski learned that his cancer was the result of a genetic mutation, and that treatment options were available.
“The fact that we were able to find this mutation and the fact there was a treatment available for this was a stroke of luck,” Coward said.
“I’d actually go and say if there were a few more weeks we’d have to wait, I think we wouldn’t be having this interview.”
After six months of genomic testing, chemotherapy, and a precision targeting of the mutation with a new drug, the Commissioner is now in the clear.
“The day Professor Coward says to me the brain cancers are gone, the liver lesions are gone, and the lung lesions are significantly reduced – it was a high five moment thinking ‘how can this be?’” Gollschewski said.
The Commissioner shared a message of hope for those going through the same thing, saying that while the disease is not curable, it is treatable.
“When you get the news that you have metastasised cancer in three parts of your body and then two weeks later you’re told it’s in your brain as well. I thought I was gone. Steve was finished,” he said.
“(But) don’t ever give up hope. Keep getting yourself checked, if you think you’re not well, and you think there’s something, keep getting checked.”
The Commissioner, who has more than 40 years on the frontline, is committed to continue his work and making the world a safer place for the community and for his daughter.
“I’ve got a little girl in grade four, I want her to grow to be whatever she wants to be and be treated with respect and not subjected to crime and misogyny and some of the other things going on in our community,” he said.
“I’ve committed to my frontline that I will deliver this for them.
“I haven’t done it yet, so I feel obligated that we will make our community safer, and make sure our community feels safer, and I will support them to do that in the best way possible.”
Image: 7News
