Richard (Dick) Vallance, benefactor

The late Richard (Dick) Vallance is a humble hero to East Timor Hearts Fund.

Inspired by a newspaper story he read about coffee plantation worker and father of one Agripino’s life-saving surgery in Melbourne, Dick decided he wanted to, in his words, “support the needy, not the greedy”.

As well as the real difference we make to the lives of patients, Dick was impressed with our economical, volunteer-driven model. He said he felt confident his contribution would be well spent.

The retiree sold a family home in Melbourne and donated the entire proceeds to East Timor Hearts Fund. Sadly, Dick passed away in late 2018. But his support did not waver. He left an extraordinarily generous bequest, that will assist our work for many years to come.

Dick wanted little recognition for his generosity. He said he was just “very grateful for the opportunity to be able to support your work”.

Peter McMullin, major donor

Peter has a long-standing relationship with Timor-Leste. He is an international business adviser to Timor-Leste’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and serves as Victoria’s Honorary Consul to Timor-Leste in Victoria. Peter has visited Timor numerous times over the years, and has led study tours and acted as an election observer.

In 2018 Peter travelled to Timor-Leste to see the work of East Timor Hearts Fund first hand. Even though Peter had travelled extensively throughout Timor-Leste he was unaware of the extent of poor heart health in the country, which has among the world’s highest rates of rheumatic heart disease.

“It was distressing to see the children in the prime of their life out of breath and struggling to attend school,” Peter says. “It was greatly rewarding to know that East Timor Hearts Fund is on the ground working with local partners in treating and working to prevent this deadly disease.”

Peter is well known as an active philanthropist who seeks to collaborate with other individuals and organisations to maximise the impact of his contributions. He encourages everyone to give to the life-saving work of East Timor Hearts Fund.