After 30 years, it’s no exaggeration to say that Humpty can still bring a tear to my eye, I promise.
It happened again in Darwin in late March, where I was for The Great Humpty Ball, Darwin 2021. This year broke all Northern Territory fundraising records with $750,000 raised, an outstanding achievement which capped off a magical few days. I think it’s always magical up there, and if I were 40 years younger, I’d move to The Territory to live. It is such an exciting place it takes your breath away.
Led by General Manager Angela Garniss, the Humpty team blitzed Darwin, taking over local TV, radio and news pages and then transforming the Mindil Beach Casino Resort into a dazzling, Saturday night charity extravaganza. Darwin certainly frocked-up for the occasion. It was a great entertainment event with food, wine, music and comedy all night.
But, in the midst of an outrageously successful few days, two things stood out for me and brought those tears to my eyes:
The first was Humpty’s amazing Morning Tea on the Wednesday before the Ball. Held on the balcony at Mindil Beach, spilling across the lush green lawns which run down to the beach, it was a mammoth children’s party fuelled by fairy bread, sponge cake and lemonade, with a cacophony of laughter and joy. Every family wanted a photo with Humpty, sweltering in his multi coloured suit, along with an inflated animal created by the highly energetic balloon artist.
Dr Louise Woodward, the much-loved Darwin paediatrician who has simply made miracles happen, watched over it all like a proud (but youthful) medical matriarch. Which, of course, she is.
It was Dr Louise who, 3 years ago, convinced Paul Francis, the inspirational Humpty Chairman, that we should somehow find $300,000 and buy a Transport Incubator for Royal Darwin Hospital. Louise had been pleading for this vital piece of medical equipment for 12 years, without success.
Anyway, at last count, 23 critically-ill newborn babies have been flown to The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne or Royal Adelaide Hospital in this life-saving cot and are today healthy and happy, with their families even happier.
It was wonderful to see about half of these glorious survivors come to Humpty’s Morning Tea to say, ‘Thanks a lot.’ In fact, they said much, much more just by their smiles and the way thankful parents clung to their precious offspring. Everywhere you looked, there were giggling babies hanging off arms and shoulders or escaping across the grass. They didn’t get far before being swept up and swirled, like kids on a Luna Park ride!
Ray Martin AM with Davey Gumbula in Darwin
Three year old Davey from Gove was there with his poster boy smile, his black curls spilling down his face, laughing uncontrollably every time I threw him into the air, asking for ‘More!’
Davey was the first baby to use the transport incubator. Dr Louise said, ‘On the day of the transport, we didn’t know if we would be able to get Davey to the hospital alive. He would almost die if someone changed his nappy. That’s how sick he was. We had to put him in a plane 30,000 feet in the air and fly for six hours and keep him alive through all of that. He really was the sickest baby that I’ve ever looked after who has made it.’
He’s a champion. And so is Jesse, who his dad said was ‘dying in our arms,’ when he was whisked off to Melbourne. Just 8 days old, he underwent heart surgery. Today, 2 year old Jesse is bubbly and beautiful.
Ben ‘started turning blue’ within ten days of his quite-normal birth. He was one of 3 Darwin children born with congenital heart disease in the space of a week, Dr Woodward tells us, but is now close to celebrating his second birthday.
Baby Francis is a twin boy who had open heart surgery in Melbourne at just 22 days old. His mother, Xaviera, insists that whoever helped buy the life-saving incubator is now ‘part of baby Francis’ family.’
‘I know that “thank you” is an overused term,’ Xaviera said with a choke in her voice. ‘I definitely can’t thank you enough for your kindness. I believe in the human spirit.’
Talking about human spirit brings me to my second tearful encounter – a poignant, unplanned moment 2 days earlier:
One of our most generous private donors was with Dr Louise at the Royal Darwin Hospital being shown some of their donated equipment hard at work in the neonatal ward. Without knowing who this donor was, but guessing they were probably important because they were being shown the workings of the paediatric rabbit-warren, a young mother sitting beside her desperately sick baby came forward and said, ‘I want to sincerely thank you for any help you may give this hospital.’
It was an unsolicited, impromptu act of gratitude by the mother, but a sentiment so deserving.
It was enough to make me cry.
By Ray Martin AM