By Mikayla van Loon
Helping mourn the end of someone’s life is what Le Pine Funerals specialise in but it’s the avoidable deaths like Pat Cronin’s that leave a lasting impression.
In 2016, at just 19 years old, Pat was coward punched from behind as he leant down to help a friend off the ground.
It was less than 36 hours later that his parents made the heart wrenching decision to turn his life support off.
Matt Cronin, Pat’s father, said none of what happened to Pat made any sense, that he had gone out for a quiet night with some friends and never returned home.
“Pat wasn’t a fighter. He was just a really good kid, he was a very smart kid. He had a scholarship at Latrobe University, where he was studying to become a physio and he was in second year uni at the time,” Matt said.
“He had the world at his feet really and for this to happen to someone like Pat just didn’t make sense to us, it didn’t make sense to anyone.”
In an attempt to educate people about senseless violence and the consequences of one punch attacks, Matt helped set up the Pat Cronin Foundation to raise awareness.
“There’s well over 120 in the last 10 years of people who died as a result of coward punches and countless more have been hospitalised and the hospitalisations, the permanent head injuries and things like that, they just don’t get recorded, it’s a real unknown statistic,” he said.
From Monday 15 November until Sunday 21 November the annual Be Wise Walk will aim to reach a total of 16,362 kilometres walked, the distance between Melbourne and Imperia Italy, where Pat did an exchange.
While Le Pine Funerals have participated most years since the walk started, this year they came on as a sponsor, with teams from Lilydale and Ferntree Gully taking part in the walking challenge.
Regional manager Ashley Crow said funeral directors see the devastation of violent acts that have life ending impacts.
“We see firsthand the result of situations like what happened to Pat and it happens all too often in our community,” he said.
“So if we can support an organisation that’s doing work to try and educate and discourage these sorts of behaviors then everyone wins.
“We don’t want to do tragic funerals like these, where deaths could have been avoided through different decisions that were made in a split second.”
Matt said although it is difficult to really assess whether things are changing with senseless violent acts, he believes it is and the work the Foundation is doing is making a difference.
This is seen through the school programs the Foundation runs and the feedback received from teachers about how student behaviour changes after listening to the presentation about Pat.
Even though those programs were successfully translated to online settings throughout the lockdowns, Matt said his concern now is the lack of socialisation while being stuck at home.
“One of the positives out of lockdown is that no one died of a coward punch during lockdown, that’s because no one was out,” he said,
“Our real concern at the moment is we’re coming out of lockdown and there’s a lot of pent up anger and we’re concerned about what will happen in the coming months as we’re all let back out into the wide world because people haven’t had to deal with other people for a long time.”
Ashley said knowing the work the Pat Cronin Foundation does and the impact the team are having on young people, it is such a worthy cause to get behind as an organisation.
“I can see, even through my own kids, the power of their presentations. So if our support of the foundation gives them the ability to do more and more of them, then I feel like we as an organisation are being a good corporate citizen as well.”
The 2021 Be Wise Walk lets you choose the distance of your walk, wherever it may be, over however many days and hopes to raise $100,000 to put towards the fully funded education sessions.
To support the foundation buy a wristband, register to walk, buy a raffle ticket to go in the draw for a $2000 Intrepid Travel voucher or just donate via the website here www.bewisewalk.com.au
To read more about Pat or book an education session go to https://patcroninfoundation.org.au/
