Top cop faces his biggest challenge

G’day everyone. I’ve been away for a while and unfortunately I have had to hand over to another inspector who will be doing my job for some time.I have had contact from a lot of people who have been asking after me as I have now been absent for three months.Last year I was on top of the world. An inspector with Victoria Police, I was the police service area manager at Bendigo, a city that I love. I loved my job and think I was good at it.I have a fantastic family, and was coming up to my 25th wedding anniversary.I had a black belt in karate and trained and taught it at least twice a week.I was the president of the Bendigo branch of the Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation and life was great for me.I had planned to retire after about 10 more years with Victoria Police, bringing my length of service up to about 39 years. In December last year, though, I developed a sore back, nothing really out of the ordinary for a 50-year-old man who was very active.I had just undergone a one- week training course for our new semi-automatic pistols.After carrying the injury for a while and coming to work with it I eventually had a scan, which revealed that I had a compression fracture in one of my vertebrae.I had actually been coming to work with a broken back for a few weeks. After a few more weeks waiting to get into a specialist, the pain just got worse and I was eventually sent to hospital where more scans were taken.By 6pm that day, my wife and I had heard the worst news we have ever heard in my life – I had cancer in my spine, and not only in one place.Our reaction was one of complete shock. I thought I was bulletproof. This could not be right. This wasn’t supposed to happen to us. From that day on, life has certainly changed for us and our children.We hear people say that they are having the biggest fight of their life when they are battling cancer and that’s what it is – and I started my biggest fight on that day.I spent my 25th wedding anniversary having serious surgery on my spine, definitely not what my wife and I had planned.I have spent quite some time in hospital away from my family and have not been able to return to work yet.After having spent some months as part of the planning team for the John Forbes Tribute cricket match on February 3, I spent that day recovering in hospital.I have undergone scans, tests, radiotherapy and chemotherapy and I am coming up to another lengthy chemotherapy treatment commencing next week.This is a story similar to one that can be told by thousands of people.Although having previously been touched by cancer with the loss of my mother and another couple of close relatives to the disease, I have never fully realised how many people are directly affected by it.I am starting to get more of a picture now of how widespread cancer is.So I just wanted to let you all know that I won’t be around for at least another couple of months and that Inspector Wayne Barclay will be looking after the Bendigo PSA manager’s job for me.Wayne has been an inspector for a number of years and his present permanent position is at Maryborough as the Central Goldfields PSA manager.I am more than happy that Wayne has been able to look after the role for me in my absence.Just a quick note before I go: the Easter break is coming up, combined with the school holidays.Easter often means camping trips or other times away for families.Please be very careful on the roads, around water and camping, if that is what you are doing during the break.If you are going to the river, remember the ground is a lot softer this year and don’t camp under gum trees. I hope to be back soon but in the near future will be concentrating on my newest fight.Stay safe!