Having been diagnosed with testicular cancer himself, Chief Superintendent Stephen Jones now wants to use his experience to ensure officers and staff going through a difficult time are treated with dignity and respect.
“I want to try to use my position to influence people’s awareness and decision-making, and how we can be a little bit better for people,” he explained, admitting he had symptoms ‘for a long time’ but put off going to see his doctor.
He finally saw a GP after a medical revealed high blood pressure.
“While I was there, I asked, ‘by the way doc, can you check my testicle?’ and he said he was more concerned about that,” Ch Supt Jones said.
“Then it was a case of undergoing tests. During that period, it was a waiting game. I was still in work, but it was a difficult time.”
Ch Supt Jones received the diagnosis in February 2020.
Following the operation to remove the testicle, he had a reaction to the prosthetic replacement.
“I had to go back into hospital for a period of time,” he said. “I had two open wounds and the ignominy of district nurses coming daily to pack my wounds.
“It was during Covid as well. Restrictions were brought in. So, it was a really weird time for me.”
The situation impacted his wife’s wellbeing, and she was off work through stress.
One son was in his first year of university, while the other was starting his GCSE exams at a new school.
“I was managing all these things but, reflecting on it, I felt lucky in many ways,” he said.
“So many other people didn’t know whether they were going to live. They didn’t know whether their businesses were going to survive.
“Everyone was talking about gloom and doom and, as a family, we had a real tight cluster. It was a weird but rewarding period for us going through Covid and through cancer at the same time.”
Ch Supt Jones recalled his immediate line manager at the time, now Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan, ‘was brilliant’ throughout.
“At the same time, other things within the Force did leave me feeling I’m just a number,” he added. “Unwittingly, I was made to feel pretty bad, and I wouldn’t want anybody else to feel like that.
“There’s no way I was going to take any more time than I absolutely needed. They knew that, I knew that. I think I had four months off. I wasn’t able to have my chemo until my open wounds had healed.”
Colleagues rallied.
“It was Covid, so they couldn’t visit,” he explained. “But I reflected on the odd text, the odd gift that arrived in the post. I think I had three or four hampers from colleagues at different times.
“Those types of gestures showed that people care. Out of the blue, little comments, gestures, getting in touch, made a big difference.”
But a letter from HR three weeks after he returned to work was less well received.
“I had a letter in a brown envelope through the door from HR that I was approaching six months’ sick, and that I could be considered for dropping to half pay,” he said.
“The impact of somebody who doesn’t know me, writing a bland HR letter because it fits process, when my line managers didn’t even know that letter was coming out.
“I’ve reflected on the impersonal nature of these letters and came back and said we need to change policies.
“Those letters now never go out without the immediate line manager knowing. We’ve brought it in that they’re hand-delivered by the line manager to make sure these conversations are happening.”
Ch Supt Jones initiated the introduction of a welfare budget for each BCU commander so they can pay for a gift for people going through hard times.
Ch Supt Jones has also made changes to the South Wales Police Benevolent Fund, which he chairs, so it can support people going through cancer experiencing hair loss with financial contributions for better wigs than are available on the NHS, or with tattooed eyebrows.
“We also pay mileage, particularly if they’ve got specialist cancer treatments some distance away,” he said.
Ch Supt Jones has recorded a podcast with the Force’s Gender Equality Network and has raised awareness through talks and presentations online and across the UK.
“I’ve had at least 10 colleagues say they had themselves checked because they had similar symptoms,” he said. “Most of them, thankfully, it’s been nothing to worry about or it’s been something else – but they’ve got themselves checked, which is brilliant. “There have been friends and peers in the rugby community who have come to me and said similar. Somebody else has also been diagnosed with testicular cancer as a result of speaking to me, and he’s had successful treatment as well. That awareness raising makes it all worthwhile.”