MAYOR’S CANCER FIGHT
GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate has revealed he will have surgery this week to remove bowel cancer. However, the full extent of his health battle will not be known for some time.
“I’ve known plenty of guys who have had bowel cancer over the years. I never thought I would be one of them.”
The Mayor said he decided to go public with his diagnosis to encourage others to look after their health. “Please, please don’t be like me, get yourself checked.”
NOTHING prepared Tom Tate for the moment he was told he had bowel cancer.
The Gold Coast Mayor was sitting in Benowa’s Pindara Hospital with his wife and a doctor late last month to discuss the results of a minor surgery to remove polyps from his colon.
“There was a moment of disbelief because I hadn’t felt any symptoms and I said to the doctor, ‘you have got to be kidding me’,” the 58-year-old told the Bulletin yesterday.
“I’ve known plenty of guys who have had bowel cancer over the years. I never thought I would be one of them.
“The lesson from this is if I had left getting checked for another year I’d be walking around carrying a bag with my bowels cut out.”
As he prepares for surgery this week to have a muscle layer of his intestine removed, the Mayor says he has been comforted in the past two weeks by his wife, Mayoress Ruth Tate, and children.
DIAGNOSIS
THE Tate family’s health woes began in June when the Mayoress had a near-fatal heart attack while travelling with her husband in Singapore.
The scare led Cr Tate to have his own medical checkup at Pindara Hospital where he underwent a colonoscopy.
In early October he got the sobering news that a 4cm growth of polyps had been discovered on his bowel, requiring surgery to remove.
Initially the Mayor was
pleased with the result and told the Bulletin shortly after the colonoscopy he believed he had “dodged a bullet”.
“The good news is if I had put this off for 12 months I was told it would have been bowel cancer,” he said at the time.
The surgery was performed late last month, after which his doctor gave him the news many thousands of families hear across Australia each year. He had cancer and further surgery was required.
“The main reason I decided to get a full checkout at my age was that Ruth had the cardiac arrest even though she was fit and healthy.
“For years, I had friends telling me to go and get checked but I always said no and it has taken this serious episode to wake me up.
“Please, please don’t be like me, you should get yourself checked.”
TREATMENT
TREATMENT of the cancer began immediately as the Tates met with specialists and other doctors to determine the proper treatment.
The Mayor will today undergo a CT scan before surgery on Wednesday night.
Councillors were notified of the Mayor’s health situation in a confidential email to all city leaders and council chief executive Dale Dickson last night.
Cr Tate hopes to resume his mayoral duties on November 20.
Deputy Mayor Donna Gates is expected be appointed Acting Mayor during his recovery.
PROGNOSIS
MAYOR Tate says news of his health battle has left him shaken, but he remains positive.
“They’ll do more tests again after (this week’s surgery) if they show nothing, but if more (cancer) is found we will have a long journey.
“It was a hard thing to hear, especially when they showed me the photos of my bowel, both before and after.
“My attitude is a glass-halffull approach and I believe everything will be fine but my main concern is getting people to have a check-up.
“I want to be around for many years, especially to see the grandkids.”
ANNUS HORRIBILIS
THE Mayor said this year was the worst he could remember.
Inspired by the words used by Queen Elizabeth II, he declared 2017 to be his very own Annus horribilis.
The Latin phrase, meaning “horrible year”, came in popular usage after the Queen used it to describe 1992, the year in which two of her children’s marriages ended and Windsor Castle caught fire.
“Right now I am looking back on it and thinking, ‘wow what a year’,” Cr Tate says.
“We’ve had Ruth’s health scare, the CCC inquiry into the council and now this.
“It brings a new personal meaning to the Annus horribilis phrase the Queen once used.”
FOR YEARS, I HAD FRIENDS TELLING ME TO GET CHECKED BUT I ALWAYS SAID NO ... PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T BE LIKE ME, YOU SHOULD GET YOURSELF CHECKED