With the most shattered and broken hearts, Chris’s parents Agal and I would like to raise some funds to support pedestrian safety and education needs as we are still waiting for the Coroners to release Chris to our final care and farewell. I am writing this appeal in front of my beautiful, beautiful boy who is smiling at me from only the photo. He was alive and active barely 10 days ago. Chris returning home from Athletics Carnival in his beloved school, Mazenod College on Feb 13, was mowed down from behind by a car that crossed all the way from the left lane, crossed the double lanes, manage to evade any oncoming traffic, missed the power lines, mounted the footpath and killed the innocent pedestrian before hitting a tree. If not for the tree, the woman who drove the car would have ploughed into the fence and probably hurt someone badly in the backyard or in the house past that tree. Or, if there were a group of students or more pedestrians, everyone would have faced the same fate. But Chris is now gone – our one and only son! To his mum, he was the ‘most perfect son who would go on a limb to do everything she asked him to.’ To his sister, he was the ‘best inbuilt friend for life.’ To me, he was always my baby boy and I will not have the fortune of him seeing hit milestones, graduating, may be having a girlfriend, marrying, having children of his own, or deciding to become a Catholic priest and wanting to give back to this beautiful society. Unfortunately, he was taken soon and his life snuffed out in a moment of madness.

While we cannot for the life of us fathom this, we do not want Chris life to have ended on Feb 20. If only there had been metal barriers near the footpath of Pound Road where Chris was walking, Chris would have stayed alive. How many more innocent lives should be sacrificed before something could be done about this? While there are bits and pieces of metal barriers in that road, why not have them for the unprotected sections of the road as well? To reiterate this and more, we want to start Pedestrian Safety Awareness Campaigns requesting councils and VicRoads to start making pedestrian safety a priority. Any funds raised in this campaign will go towards that. I am also grateful to someone who has started a change.org petition in this regard to get the community behind this cause.

Chris was a high achiever at school, extraordinarily organised – he aced his studies. One of the last things he asked for was more flash cards to learn the definitions. He spent at least 4 hours behind his desk every day – being a school teacher myself, I commended Chris for the tremendous efforts which even I couldn’t emulate! I always told him that he will really shine in his life as it’s not the results but the efforts that define him. And that was another reason, why Chris even though on ventilator support for 7 days, was given every chance to return to us, because we know he will make every effort with the Divine mercy of Jesus and the protection of Mother Mary (Chris never once failed to recite the Rosary since the time he could speak, up until his accident). Chris was such an inspiration and we would like Chris’s legacy to continue by creating Scholarships in his name – we want to provide bundles of flash cards or such education supplies to a number of students for free to learn. If there is sufficient funding, we would establish an endowment fund in his name to provide 100% scholarship for a student or more for their entire year 11 school fees or for their educational needs.

We as a family will ensure that every dollar raised will be purely used for these twin purposes of raising pedestrian safety and education needs. Thank you, brother and sister, for reading this and supporting our son, even in his death. God bless. May February 20 become ‘Pedestrian Safety Day.’ No parent should ever plan their child's funeral. But we are in that worst situation. We will keep the community informed about funeral where we can all celebrate Chris's life in his beloved Our Lady Help of Christians church where he served as an altar server for so many masses, one LAST time.

Antony, Agal and Auxilia.