Women and homelessness are my priority

How Diana is helping others find their way home

Diana grew up in the "hard times" that followed World War II. She remembers it as a time when people had very little, but helped each other find a way forward. Diana wants to make sure there's always a way forward for people in need, so she has kindly included a gift in her Will to Mission Australia.

Diana has packed a lot into her 81 years of life. She's been an artist, an archaeologist in Cyprus, worked at The British Museum, taught at Wollongong University for three decades, and raised two sons.

She saw terrible poverty in London and Italy, but says it was an experience in Wollongong, Australia in the early nineties that inspired her giving.

As she tells it, it was around that time that many psychiatric hospitals were closing their doors, and the people who needed them were left with nowhere to go.
Diana found "... the idea of homelessness and people on the streets through mental illness very troubling." And she wanted to help.

People who were homeless were welcomed at Diana's local church, and the congregation regularly gave what they could to Mission Australia to help. Diana has been a supporter ever since.

A visit to a Mission Australia service in XXXXX helped her see the impact of her support. There, she met a decorated veteran who had served his country with distinction, but who ended up sleeping rough and estranged from his family.
With a safe place to stay, good food, and the medical support he needed, Diana says he was a "completely different person".

With Diana's two sons well provided for, she decided to include a gift to Mission Australia in her Will. She hopes she can continue to make a difference for people who are homeless, and told us that she is especially concerned about women who find themselves homeless because of family violence.

Diana's future gift will continue to change lives in a profound and meaningful way. Thank you, Diana!