Veteran firefighter Jock McLeod has compo claim awarded after three years of fighting

IT WAS a fight many wouldn’t have the resilience to continue, but through endless doctors appointments, chemotherapy and three separate knock-backs from insurer TIO, Jock McLeod will finally be compensated for the cancer he contracted on the job

Jock McLeod and his AFL legend son, Andrew McLeod. Picture: Calum Robertson

IT was a fight many wouldn’t have the resilience to continue, but through endless doctors appointments, chemotherapy and three separate knock-backs from insurer TIO, former firefighter Jock McLeod will finally be compensated for the cancer he contracted on the job.

The veteran NT firefighter, who retired after an almost 50 year career, received a call this week after his appeal through NT WorkSafe was accepted.

“I don’t know how to feel because I didn’t expect it to happen,” he said.

“It’s great for all firefighters.” Mr McLeod helped enact major reforms to the NT Government’s workers compensation scheme in 2014.

The changes meant firefighters who contracted any of 12 specified cancers on the job would be covered by presumptive legislation, finally bringing the NT into line with most other jurisdictions.

His cancer was one of the 12 covered under new legislation but after reneging on a vow to pay up, TIO refused to pay, for the third time.

In a message from Mr McLeod to all NT Firefighters union members he said he had one avenue of appeal left open to him through NT WorkSafe.

“I was about to give up on all of this as I could see no end to what the insurance company (TIO) were doing to me. This was weighing heavily on my physical and mental wellbeing,” he said.

It was only after a phone call from someone he greatly respected, pleading for him to have one last shot, that gave him the strength to go on.

“I decided to appeal and was examined and assessed by the three doctors ... my previous claims were turned down as I was being assessed using American Medical Association 4 guidelines (and) it appears that AMA4 is not suitable for firefighter assessments for carcinomas,” he said.

“ ... This victory is for all firefighters and we all played a big part in this.”

NT Fire Fighters Union United Voice secretary Erina Early said Jock was an inspiration to all fireys and Territorians.

Jock, who is in Adelaide spending time with his son and former AFL great Andrew McLeod, said retirement was getting sweeter each day but the compensation was hardly exorbitant: “I won’t be buying a place in Fannie Bay or driving around in a Porsche, put it that way”.