Melanoma nightmare: Former CEO tells of wife’s devastating diagnosis after mole removed
The former CEO of a global restaurant giant has revealed how a visit with his wife for an MRI on a torn muscle ended in a “shattering” diagnosis that left her with just three months to live.
Cancer
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The former CEO of global restaurant giant Collins Foods has opened up for the first time since losing his wife to melanoma, describing her as an “ irrepressible fountain of energy”.
Drew O’Malley, who had been in the top role for the Australian KFC and Taco Bell operator since 2020 before stepping down last year, said his wife Jola had always been fit and healthy before going to get an abnormally shaped mole on her abdomen checked.
The family was shocked when the mole was diagnosed as a melanoma in 2022 but when it was removed in 2023, Ms O’Malley believed she was in the clear.
It wasn’t until a severe pain in her shoulder came on suddenly early last year that she was alerted to something more sinister – the cancer had returned and was stage four.
“We took her to the hospital in Brisbane for what we thought was just an MRI on a torn muscle in her shoulder. But instead, they dropped a bomb on us,” Mr O’Malley said. “The tumours were everywhere, everywhere in her body, and we were completely shell-shocked. Our world just turned upside down in an instant, the cancer was incredibly aggressive.”
Mr O’Malley said treatment to eradicate the tumours gave the family “moments of hope” in extending Ms O’Malley’s life, but it tragically wasn’t enough.
“We lost Jola only three months later. I mean, it was three months to the day of her diagnosis. It was just absolutely shattering,” he said.
“We were completely shattered as a family – you have a sense that life is stable, that any changes are going to be signalled well in advance. But it’s not, life is fragile, it can be capricious, and it can change in an instant.”
The devastating loss of his wife saw Mr O’Malley stand down from his role as CEO at Collins Foods, to be with his two children Philip, 14, and Zosia, 10, as they processed life without their beloved mum.
“We’ve spent really the last year trying to regain our equilibrium and obviously that has not been easy,” he said. “The kids have been amazing, they are resilient. I’m also proud of them and how we’ve pulled closer together as a family.”
Mr O’Malley said his wife, who he met in 2007, was “an amazing spirit”. “I mean, she was fun, she was artistic, she was warm, and just this incredible kind of irrepressible fountain of energy,” he said.
“She was quite young and healthy, she was fit, she ate organic food, she took care of herself, and she just wasn’t the type of person that you would think would be high risk of getting melanoma.
“We moved to Australia from Poland in 2017 and we’ve loved it in Australia, it’s an extraordinary country.”
Now, the former chief executive is determined to spread awareness and make sure no other families have to deal with what they went through.
While the Melanoma March on Saturday March 29 had been cancelled, an event Mr O’Malley and his two children were participating in, the Melanoma Institute of Australia encouraged others to donate to the event’s fundraiser.
Originally published as Melanoma nightmare: Former CEO tells of wife’s devastating diagnosis after mole removed
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