Kintsugi Heroes
Craig Gooze
A former detective raised $1.5 million for children's cancer by turning his daughter's death into three endurance challenges, then applied her lessons to his own.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Craig Gooze was a decorated New South Wales detective raising five children when his seven-year-old daughter Jessica was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. The diagnosis came the same month he joined an elite covert police unit investigating organised crime and police corruption. For the next two years, Craig balanced undercover operations within ten minutes of the hospital with shifts at his daughter's bedside, keeping routine and normality as his anchor point for the whole family.
When Jessica lost her right arm to amputation and doctors told Craig her lungs were full of tumours, he made a choice: turn his grief into purpose. Before she died at age nine, Jessica asked him to complete a second expedition across Australia. Craig taught himself to paddle a surf ski in nine months and completed a 1,000-kilometre ocean paddle from Avalon Beach to Broad Beach, raising $150,000 for children's cancer. After Jessica's death, he ran, cycled, and paddled 5,000 kilometres across the country in 34 days, raising $350,000. In 2009, he undertook a third endurance challenge, this time raising $1 million for the Children's Cancer Institute.
Craig spent 24 years in the police force, working covertly to dismantle drug networks and catch corrupt officers. He learned that the people he arrested were not one-dimensional villains but fathers, coaches, and neighbours operating in different circumstances. Twenty years after Jessica lost her arm, Craig was diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma on the same arm, on the same date. He has since faced melanoma and ongoing immunotherapy. Today, his podcast Conviction reached the top ten per cent globally, and a television series based on his story is in development with respected Australian actors and directors.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
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