At the end of last year, the Foundation received the following message from the office of our Patron-in-Chief, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Governor-General of Australia:

“This year has been unique and brought many challenges. Importantly though, for organisations like yours that do so much in our community, while the how may have changed, the ‘why’ and the ‘who’ have not. You have continued to help people, uplift those around you and made our community better.

In the normal course of events the Governor-General and Mrs Hurley would be looking forward to welcoming you to Government House to say thank you in person. That is not possible in 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Their Excellencies would still like to acknowledge and thank your organisation for all of the incredible and tireless efforts across 2020.

One way that they would like to do that is to provide your organisation with a Governor-General’s medallion for presentation to a member of your team (staff, volunteer or supporter) who has contributed in some significant way to your efforts in 2020. The medallion is a gift and it is up to each organisation to determine who to present it to (and why).”

Of course, we welcomed this opportunity to recognise service to the Weary Dunlop legacy, and after due consideration the Foundation Board decided to award the Governor-General’s medallion to our Treasurer of five years Mr Dennis Payne.

Since joining the Board, Mr Payne, a National Serviceman, has gone well above and beyond the call of duty in attending to the financial management of the organisation. In spite of leading a busy professional life, he has been very generous with his time, and his meticulous attention to detail and keeping Directors informed is greatly appreciated. His contribution to developing new fundraising ideas is driven by a deep commitment to benefitting ex-serving men and women through medical research in the name of Sir Edward Dunlop.

The medallion was presented at our 2021 research grant presentations in May. Congratulations Dennis, on this well-deserved acknowledgement of your contribution.