Brave Francis walks 500 miles and sleeps rough for 40 days
By Aideen O'Flaherty
WALKING 500 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles over 40 days is no mean feat, but combining that with sleeping rough every night to raise awareness of homelessness and fundraise for charity, makes Francis Cronin’s completion of the challenge even more impressive.
The 36-year-old Templeogue man, who moved to LA five years ago to pursue a career in acting and stand-up comedy, previously served as a lieutenant in the Irish army and went on to get a degree from NUI Galway – where he spent his final year living in a tent on campus as he was low on cash, and he documented the experience on his YouTube channel Glowpunk.
Francis Cronin
The past pupil of Templeogue College enjoys taking on tough challenges and seeing how far he can push himself, and when he embarked on his latest challenge, he decided he was going to use it as an opportunity to highlight the plight of the homeless in LA.
Francis took a call from The Echo, during the last five miles of his 500-mile challenge, as he was walking through Beverley Hills to get to the venue for his stand-up show Rough Set, which also featured sets from Jeff Garlin and Moses Storm, with the event marking the end of his walk.
At the time of print, Francis had raised over $20,000 for the charity Homeless Health Care Los Angeles (HHCLA), and he used social media to document his difficulty with sleep deprivation and being out in the elements during the walk and while sleeping rough.
Francis told The Echo that when he told people what he was doing they usually reacted by “pulling back, exhaling deeply and asking for the name of my Instagram account.
“People love it because it’s the archetypal journey – it’s venturing into the unknown.”
When asked about his most unnerving moment during his journey, Francis said that when he was walking along some train tracks, in order to avoid walking along the highway, he spotted footprints from an animal that he believes may have been a mountain lion.
Other difficulties also became apparent as Francis’ journey went on, which helped to open his eyes to the plight of people who sleep on the streets.
“I’ve missed getting eye contact and the sense that I exist,” Francis said. “The more dishevelled I became, the less people would look in my direction. It attacks your self-esteem and self-confidence.
“I have an overwhelming feeling of sadness that a lot of the homeless people that I’ve met along the way, who took me under their wing, are without support.”
Francis hopes that the money raised for HHCLA will help these people, and during his phone call with The Echo Francis briefly spoke to a homeless man who was walking by him and gave him a few dollars and asked him how he was.
A lot of positives did emerge during the experience, with Francis reflecting that “the world is a really beautiful, kind and loving place.”
Looking ahead, Francis said he was excited to sleep in his own bed again in the safety of his home.
“I’m already wondering what it will be like to sleep in silence again, and just to experience the depth of sleep,” he said.
“The filmmaker and anthropological side of my brain is excited to see how I’ll react.
“I might find myself making radical changes in my life – I don’t want to settle straight back into things and be the same [as I was before this experience].”
You can donate to HHCLA online at https://hhcla.org/donate.html, and Francis is also crowdfunding to turn his experience into a pilot called Rough Set at https://tinyurl.com/RoughSet
You can follow Francis on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, where his account name is @GlowPunk.
