CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi police have welcomed in a new officer who has shown a great spirit through his battle with cancer, 6-year-old Julian Galloway.
It started with a cell phone video.
“When I'm bigger," Julian said to his father on the video.
"And what are you going to do," Lee Galloway, Julian's father, asked.
"Be a police officer," Julian responded.
"Why," Lee asked.
"Because I want to," said Julian.
"Because why," Lee asked once more.
"Because I’m gonna be with daddy,” Julian said.
Lee had been trying to capture more memories of his children when he recorded that video.
"Out of the blue, just said 'daddy I want to be a police man like you,'" said Lee during Julian's swearing in ceremony. "And that hit me, a lot...Hearing that melted my heart."
It led to Julian being Corpus Christi’s newest honorary police officer. He joins his father who’s been on the force for 16 years.
"He (Lee) was very proud of that moment," said Monica Galloway, Julian's mother. "It’s (a) very emotional moment for all of us. Since this is Julian's second time going through chemo treatment."
Julian has been battling brain cancer on and off since December 2019.
“Julian has experienced hearing loss from his chemo treatment, there’s a lot of radiation effects he has received already and its not even been an entire year,” she said.
Still, Julian’s spirit has remained high. He was able to go through police academy training in preparation of his swearing in ceremony. All documented in a video released by CCPD on their social media pages.
"I love that every year I get to pin badges on new officers," Police Chief Mike Markle said at the ceremony. "But I love more that we're a family afterwards."
“It was better than I could have ever expected," Monica said. "It was just the sweetest and just the cutest thing and there was so much participation from all of the department. And there was so many people behind the scenes.”
September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. Monica is hoping it brings more research efforts to help children like Julian.
"All types of pediatric cancers are just being diagnosed every day," she said. "And if we could just shed some more light on that. And so, that they have better survival rates and so that they have more treatments."
Julian's parents made the decision to withdraw him from St. Pius X Catholic School because of all the time he's going to miss with cancer treatments, resting, and recovery. There was also concern with COVID-19 and Julian's weakened immune system.
