Joaninha da Silva Faria ran the five-kilometre leg of the The Age Run Melbourne on Sunday - an achievement that seemed impossible for the 19-year-old late last year.
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Last November Nina, as she is known to her friends and family, underwent a life-saving heart valve procedure at MonashHeart.
She had been flown from her home in East Timor by Melbourne business owner Susan Bell, who was touched by her story.
Until the operation Ms da Silva Faria was critically ill and doubted she would live, let alone walk or run again.
She returned to Melbourne to promote awareness of the prevalence of heart disease among young people in Timor.
''I'm very happy to be part of this event; I never considered that I would be here today,'' she said before her run.
She hopes to study medicine here and calls Melbourne a second home. ''If I were to have a sponsor, I would move here to study and become a doctor.''
Cardiologist Dr Noel Bayley has been flying to East Timor twice a year for 11 years and said chronic heart failure was common there even among young people.
''It's difficult. In an ideal world we would be able to treat everybody, but you can't in many cases,'' he said. Dr Bayley said Ms da Silva Faria's recovery had been nothing short of miraculous. On Sunday, several runners participating in the Run Melbourne race under the East Timor Hearts Fund umbrella raised more than $15,000, which was to pay for the heart operation of another Timorese patient Tomas Pinto.
Run Melbourne organisers said 25,000 runners took part in the event and more than $1.8 million was raised for 450 charities.
