By Justin Flynn
When two young Ocean Grovers saw a boy walking in the middle of the street, they knew they had to do something.
Harry Cornish, who has autism, had fled the family holiday home in search of the beach and was walking in the middle of the road, unaware of the danger that was unfolding.
Harry’s mother, Mancell, had turned her back for the split second and that’s all Harry needed to make his own way out of the house and in search of the beach. Mancell was frantically searching for him.
That’s when Sam McGlynn and Andrew Schoch saw him walk down the middle of Field Street.
“At first I thought his parents might have been there close behind or just in front,” Sam said.
“I knew something was up. He wasn’t listening so we guided him to the side of the footpath to make sure he was safe,” Andrew chimed in.
The boys stayed with Harry until Mancell found them. A grateful Mancell thanked the boys many times.
“She was very worried, she said ’thank you’ quite a bit,” Sam said.
Mancell put in a call to the Voice to try and find the boys who helped Harry. They were found on social media.
“They are so humble – I showed him (Andrew) the story and he said ’yeah…we helped him’,” Monica Schoch said.
“It was totally unprompted. They knew something was wrong.”
Sam and Andrew played under-13 and under-15 cricket for Ocean Grove and volunteer their time on Friday evenings to help with the under-11s. It’s something they do to put back into the club and community.
When the Voice caught up with Sam and Andrew, they were not seeking recognition or glory.
“It was just something we did out of instinct,” Andrew said.
“We really didn’t want any fuss.”
