Missing Mac’s Mum
Exactly 100 days before Mac took his own life, he lost his Mum, Renee.
In his note to family, Mac outlined his guilt of not being able to spend more time with her before she passed away from a cardiac arrest, just six weeks after being diagnosed with MS.
His father Wayne believes this was a factor that contributed to Mac’s decision to end his life.
Renee and Wayne parted in 2010, sharing custody of both Mac and Daisy. They remained close friends while looking after their children. In 2022 Renee began fainting, losing her balance and really struggling physically.
Wayne said they did myriad tests and initially weren’t sure whether it was Parkinson’s disease or something of that nature. About six weeks before she passed away, they finally identified that it was a really unusual strain of MS.
Renee was in and out of hospital. She’d have a fall, and then she’d get better, but a number of physical challenges from her illness led to her spending a fair bit of time in hospital.
Devastatingly, one morning in July 2023, Renee had a cardiac arrest at her home. When she was found she’d been unconscious for several minutes. Renee was rushed to hospital and remained on life support for two or three days.
This gave her kids a chance to hold her hand and tell her how much they loved her before her life support was switched off.
It hit Mac and Daisy really hard. While their parents shared custody, Renee couldn’t drive toward the end of her life. Mac needed Wayne to drive him to footy, basketball and work and it was logistically impossible for him to stay anywhere but with his father.
Wayne said Mac told him he felt guilty he wasn’t able to spend more time with his Mum before she passed away and also wrote about this in the note he left for his family when he took his life.
It’s been a really rough time for Daisy, who is nearly 16, and lost her mother in July and brother in October.