After 25 years of dedicated service with NSW Health Pathology, Queanbeyan Hospital Laboratory’s Marc Balfour retired on 1 May, leaving behind a legacy of professionalism, reliability and quiet leadership.

Marc has spent his entire career as a Hos­pi­tal Sci­en­tist at Quean­beyan, serv­ing as sec­ond-in-charge (2IC) of the lab­o­ra­to­ry for almost two decades.

In this role, he has been a trust­ed and steady pres­ence, reg­u­lar­ly step­ping in as Lab­o­ra­to­ry Man­ag­er, over­see­ing month­ly stock man­age­ment, and sup­port­ing the smooth oper­a­tion of the lab across all disciplines.

With a par­tic­u­lar pas­sion for Micro­bi­ol­o­gy and Haema­tol­ogy, Marc has tak­en on many senior respon­si­bil­i­ties in these areas, while also serv­ing as a Pri­ma­ry Oper­a­tor for most lab­o­ra­to­ry instruments.

Over the years, he has played a key role in train­ing and men­tor­ing new staff, shar­ing his knowl­edge and help­ing shape the next gen­er­a­tion of scientists.

Marc’s path into pathol­o­gy began with a high school counsellor’s rec­om­men­da­tion, and that advice led to a career marked by ded­i­ca­tion and impact.

Reflect­ing on his career, Marc recalls sev­er­al proud moments.

“It’s always nice when you know the work you are doing has a pos­i­tive impact on some­one. I remem­ber assist­ing in a life-sav­ing response for a mater­ni­ty patient dur­ing a mas­sive trans­fu­sion pro­to­col. It was even more mean­ing­ful when the patient lat­er returned to the lab to per­son­al­ly thank the team with flow­ers,” Marc said.

“Anoth­er career high­light was receiv­ing praise dur­ing a live ses­sion with renowned Haema­tol­ogy Mor­phol­o­gy edu­ca­tor Gillian Rozenberg.

“It was a small com­pli­ment, but a real­ly proud moment.”

Marc also takes pride in the laboratory’s strong per­for­mance dur­ing NATA assess­ments, and said the team­work and com­mit­ment from the Quean­beyan lab staff could always be relied upon, and was required to main­tain such high standards.

Col­leagues describe Marc as depend­able, hard­work­ing and a per­son of great integrity.

“It has been a plea­sure work­ing with you for the past 15 years. The lab­o­ra­to­ry won’t be the same with­out you,” said Igor Cvetkos­ki, Hos­pi­tal Scientist.

“Thank you for your hard work, ded­i­ca­tion and sup­port over the years. We wish you all the best as you begin this well-deserved new chap­ter,” said Lab­o­ra­to­ry Man­ag­er Krit Singh.

In retire­ment, Marc is look­ing for­ward to focus­ing on his fit­ness, includ­ing cycling, gym and walk­ing, as well as trav­el­ling and tack­ling a num­ber of projects around the house.

Marc, thank you for your out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion over the past 25 years. You will be great­ly missed, and we wish you a long, healthy and ful­fill­ing retirement!

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