louder than words A Time for Reflection Ray Martin AM

Both my children were both born effortlessly at our fantastic local hospital, just one of the many privileges

Twiggy and Nicola Forrest gave twenty million dollars to the Randwick Children’s Hospital the other day. Twenty million. This will help build one of the world’s great research centres for kids’ cancer.

The mining magnet and his wonderful wife are, of course, amongst our richest families. But still, the Forrests’ don’t have to give away their tens of billions of dollars, as they have promised to do.

So, when one of the paediatricians at Royal North Shore asked if we could help raise some money - to paint the khaki-coloured walls in the Children’s Ward - it was impossible to say “No”.

From Broken Hill to Mareeba, from Tennant Creek to Taree, Paul and I have visited hospitals where we’ve met healthy babies who are only smiling today (almost as much as their relieved parents) because you cared enough.

And you do. One of the great mantras of my old friend and mentor, Professor Fred Hollows, the legendary eye doctor, was, “The single quality that separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom, is that we have the capacity to care.”

The capacity to care!

We shake our heads when we hear doctors and nurses talk about now being able to save babies - without feeling one hand was tied behind their back, because they didn’t have the medical equipment. In some of Australia’s more remote towns, they honestly didn’t believe anybody was listening. Or could be bothered.

Paul Francis and his committee promptly organised what was called The Wimbledon Ball (remember Paul is heavily into tennis shorts) and I agreed to be the MC.

This latest act of public kindness by Twiggy and Nicola –and there have been many from this remarkable WA couple -set me thinking about Australians and philanthropy. And to be honest, we’re not very good at it, nothing like the Americans.

That’s over ninety million dollars ago, some years before the Humpty Dumpty Foundation was even born.

Rich folk in Australia tend to sit on their wallets, often pretending that they’re anonymously philanthropic. I hate to say it, but usually they’re not. Of course, there are fantastic exceptions to that general rule.

In fact, we’ve now reached over three decades of great food and fine wine events, asking Humpty’s family and friends to buy life-saving equipment that governments just can’t afford.

We’ve heard that story so many times. You know - on reflection – it is the unbridled generosity of Humpty’s supporters that resonates the loudest. Why you keep giving money to babies and children and families whom you’ll probably never meet – but who are emotionally forever in your debt – astounds me. If you sometimes wonder about the decency or charity of Australians, well just come to a Humpty lunch or dinner – or the Balmoral Burn. That’s worth reflecting on.

In another lifetime I was the Chairman of the Fred Hollows Foundation for its first decade. I was also hosting the Nine Network programme, A Current Affair. I walked in my front door one night after the show and my house phone rang. It was Dick Smith, who is an extraordinary Australian, and generous to a fault.

“G’day, Ray,” Dick said, “Are you still involved with Fred Hollows?” I said I was.

“Is it doing good work?” he asked.

That’s why it’s a time for reflection. Because generous people like you have bought the Humpty dream. And for some reason you keep doing it, again and again. What you do - when you pull out your credit card or write a cheque - makes an enormous difference. There’s no doubt, many babies are alive in hospitals and clinics right across Australia – now around 500 different places – because of the generosity of individuals and corporations, from all over Australia.

The Humpty Dumpty family, for example, is uncommonly generous. And our supporters don’t often move amongst the billionaire set.

Maybe it’s because Paul Francis and the Humpty team give people who are inclined to donate to charity a lot of good reasons to be generous. Maybe it’s because when it comes to babies and children we really are moved to do something. We want to make a difference.

Humpty is also slowly building ‘a family’ in Darwin, to help mostly Indigenous babies isolated right across the Territory. In five short years, the impact has been breathtaking.

Ray Martin has been a Patron of the Humpty Dumpty Foundation since 1990 to raise awareness of the Foundation and the work it provides for sick children in hospitals across Australia. Ray hosts many of Humpty’s events as well as being involved in trips across Australia to meet with medical professionals, young hospital patients and their families. Ray is also involved in The Good Egg Magazine, which celebrates the work of the Humpty Dumpty Foundation.

Martin was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2010 Australia Day Honours “for service to the community through voluntary roles with charitable, Indigenous, health and sporting organisations, and to the media as a television journalist.” humpty.com.au or email humpty@humpty.com.au

Martin was awarded the Centenary Medal on 1 January 2001.

I told him it was, it was doing exceptional work. (Still is.) What I didn’t tell him was that we were having desperate trouble raising funds. In fact, we were going broke and starting to wonder how we were going to survive. It’s not easy getting Australian charity money to fix the eyes of cataract blind people in the Third World, especially when the great man (or woman) on whom it all depends, suddenly dies of cancer, as sadly Fred Hollows did thirty years ago.

In 2018, Martin was honoured with a special collection of post stamps issued by Australia Post.