Question 1

What is Craig Goozee OAM's story about?

Accepted Answer

Craig Goozee OAM was a dedicated father raising five children and an elite undercover detective investigating organised crime when his seven-year-old daughter Jessica was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. He balanced covert police work with her brutal hospital treatment, watching her endure chemotherapy, radiation, and eventually the amputation of her right arm. When Jessica passed away at nine years old in 1999, Craig channelled his grief into action. Inspired by what he had witnessed in the children's ward, he taught himself to paddle a surf ski and spent sixteen days crossing the ocean from Avalon to Broad Beach, raising $158,000 for children's cancer research. Jessica asked him to do another marathon before she died, pointing to Albany on a map of Australia. Craig honoured that wish by cycling, running, and paddling 5,000 kilometres around the country over thirty-four days, raising $350,000 for the Children's Cancer Institute.

Question 2

What did Craig Goozee OAM learn from this experience?

Accepted Answer

Craig learned from watching Jessica that kids are so much more resilient than adults give them credit for, carrying on without self-pity through chemo and amputation in ways that showed him how he should live his own life.

Question 3

What would Craig Goozee OAM want listeners to know?

Accepted Answer

Keeping routine and normality, rather than giving in to feeling sorry for yourself or sitting around thinking about things, is what allowed Craig to balance covert police work with his daughter's cancer treatment and later helped him cope with his own diagnosis.

Question 4

What helped Craig Goozee OAM most along the way?

Accepted Answer

When Craig arrested criminals he had spent over a year surveilling, he found that many of them were not purely evil but ordinary people living compartmentalised lives, a strength and conditioning trainer, a character with family and normal weekends, someone different from the version he saw at work.

Question 5

What would Craig Goozee OAM tell someone going through something similar?

Accepted Answer

The moment Craig handed over a cheque at the end of a marathon was better than any physical experience on the road because he could see where the money came from-$5 or $10 or $1,000 given by people he did not know.

Question 6

What topics does this episode cover?

Accepted Answer

This conversation includes a father, a detective, an ultramarathon runner, jessica gets sick while craig goes undercover, what craig learned from watching his daughter in the hospital, the first marathon: paddling from avalon to broad beach, meeting a man in a caravan who gives everything and jessica asks for another marathon before she dies.

From Grief to Purpose and Creating Change with Craig Goozee OAM

More stories

Kintsugi Mentors Intro Video

Learning to Live a Full Life Despite the Challenges of Anxiety with Karen Sander

Healing Trauma by Rewiring the Unconscious Mind with Judith Richards