In a thoughtful and fitting touch to the evening, large colourful balloons, shaped into creatures such as crabs, starfish, whales and sharks, which were used to decorate the auditorium at Wests as part of the “the under the sea”-themed awards ceremony,  were donated to the J2 ward of the John Hunter Children’s Hospital.

“I wanted to rehome as many balloons as possible to somewhere that I knew would love them,” Tracey Marjoram, a sales representative from the Examiner and organiser of the 2017 awards, said. “All children love balloons so I thought why not donate them to the children’s ward at the hospital? 

“It seemed like a perfect fit and that the kids in the ward would benefit from them.”

The balloons were presented last Thursday and Derek Lowe, the assistant Nursing Unit Manager of J2 Ward  said they were  a big hit.

“We’ve recently revamped the ward and at the moment there is a lot of white walls so the balloons have added some much-needed colour,” he said.

“We’ve put them around the nurses’ station. Everyone is talking about them.”

Mr Lowe said three little patients that were in the hospital for a day procedure last Friday were particularly taken by the balloons.

“We  gave one each to these three little kids; they really loved them,” Mr Lowe said.

“It was a nice, positive token from their time with us. The rest will brighten up the nurses’ station.”