By ANEEKA SIMONIS
ONE punch is all it can take to end someone’s life.
Kerry ‘Kez’ McIntyre knows too well the reverberations one violent act can have.
Her son Johno Martin, 21, was best friends with Cameron Lowe – a fun-loving, 17-year-old – whose life was cut short by a coward-punch attack outside a fast food restaurant in Pakenham in November 2010.
Her son’s whole life changed as a result of the fatal blow.
“I had to take him down to say goodbye. I stood there and watched my own son holding his best friend’s hand and saying goodbye,” she recalled.
“It gives me goose bumps.
“It will stick with him for the rest of his life.”
Though the consequences of the punching attack were irreversible, the Drouin mum has made it her mission to put an end to violence.
Director of One Punch Campaign Australia, she has spent the past two years tireless campaigning to curb the attitudes and behaviours devastating families across the country.
Her main point of attack is at bars and pubs.
Alcohol continues to be one of the leading contributors to violence, with an overwhelming majority of attacks happening inside or near licensed venues.
With an intention of fighting the problem at its source, Kez’s campaign has been rolled out in the service area of pubs and bars in all states and territories of Australia.
The message of her campaign, emblazoned on bar mats: “Be smart, don’t start. One punch kills”.
Locally, the bar mats are stocked in venues including the Pakenham Hotel, Longwarry Hotel and Drouin Family Hotel.
Hungry Jacks in Pakenham has also taken up the message – a tribute to Cameron who was struck with a fist on his way home from the fast food outlet.
“It’s opening up a conversation. I was sitting at the Woodside Pub a while ago. The mats are there. I saw a group of seven people aged 18-60 talking about the deadly impacts of one-punch attacks,” she recalled.
“That’s when I knew it would work.
“I think the more people that talk about it, the more unacceptable it will become. Mates need to tell mates to calm down. Not to react. If there’s a conversation, there is a better chance someone steps up and says it’s not OK.”
At least 100 lives are known to have been lost by one-punch assaults in the past 15 years, while countless others have been left with life-altering disabilities including physical and mental impairment.
According to victims, alcohol and drugs contribute to more than 60 per cent of physical assaults nationwide.
She said it has long been regarded that a knife or gun is more dangerous than a fist, but she argued it is one of the most dangerous weapons an out-of-control aggressor could wield.
“What people don’t realise is that it is one of the quickest and fastest ways to kill. You don’t have to pick up a weapon, you are the weapon,” Kez said.
“People just realise what their punch may do to someone. We live in a concrete world … if you punch someone hard enough … it could be fatal.”
Her bar mats hope to serve as a constant reminder to people socialising around – or consuming alcohol – to think twice before reacting.
However, she has the opposite advice to give when it comes to the community’s fight against alcohol-fuelled violence.
“People get up in arms when someone is killed. But once it is out of the news, they forget.
“I got sick of this reaction. You would never go into a pub and see something about it (alcohol-fuelled violence). People would only ever talk about it again when someone else died.
“The most powerful thing victims of a coward punch can do is turn their turn their grief into something passionate and pro-active. Often families just can’t do it and that’s OK. We all grieve differently, there is no right or wrong.”
Today, Kez reflects on the way Cameron’s death has impacted her son.
It’s an experience she would never wish upon anyone else.
“He has had behavioural changes since. He doesn’t drink alcohol, has flashbacks and fears it will happen to someone else he cares about,” Kez explained.
But his fear is evidenced by the many reported and unreported physical attacks that rock the community.
Locally, Kooweerup teen Abby Kerr was concussed after an alleged coward-punch on New Year’s Eve.
The 18-year-old was allegedly struck to the head after attempting to break up a fight between her friends and an unknown group on the beach at Phillip Island, about 2.30am on 1 January this year.
“This is something that happens frequently, and it could easily take someone’s life,” said Abby’s mother Lana Cachia Kerr, a mum also pushing for increased awareness and victim reporting.
Five years on from Cameron’s death, Kez made a guess that he may have taken up work as a chef or working with food.
He would have been a young adult – 22 years of age – enjoying his life like young people do.
“He and Johno would probably still be playing Xbox and running havoc like they did. He used to get up on stilts and try jump the wheelie bins. He could never manage it, so I’d imagine he would still be trying or have done it by now,” Kez said.
But, true to the song that played at his funeral – Cameron will remain forever young.
Kez hopes to keep pushing her anti-violence message across the nation, with plans to consolidate her work with similar awareness programs including One Punch Can Kill.
Legislation surrounding one-punch killers was upgraded in 2014, with convicted perpetrators serving a 10-year minimum sentence over the violent crime.
