The publicity and the hype in the days leading up and then watching other people celebrate on the day with their family can be hard to take when your mum or dad aren’t there.

Faced with that reality about to hit one of its players on Mother’s Day this year one sporting team stood up to let a teammate know she was not alone.

The Western Mariners women’s team represent some of the best soccer players in the Central West with players from Orange, Bathurst, Cowra and other towns.

One player Tamara Dickson had watched her best friend and team mate Tanielle Michael of Cowra deal with the loss of both her mother, Debbie Michael, and her stepmother Toni Day, to cancer within a few months.

So she organised a special event on Mother’s Day.

Wearing purple ribbons in their hair and clutching 30 balloons the senior squad and some under 17 and under 15 players held a minute’s silence just before kick-off then released the balloons over the ground.

Dickson said it was an emotional day.

“Purple was her mum’s favourite colour,” she said.

“The whole point around it was she didn’t have anyone there to watch her game.

“It’s more of a thing for the ones who don’t have mums on Mother’s Day.”

“I did it purely for Tanielle but it has meant more than it was actually for.

“People have said, ‘this has touched my heart’.

“It has brought the team closer. It has brought a lot of camaraderie. It’s made us strong,” she said.

“It has put a different perspective about certain days of the year.

“I wouldn’t mind doing something more.

“It was probably just a one-off but it will all depend on [what can be done].”

Another player, Tori Worboys said: “We all stood together with purple ribbons in our hair, and 30 balloons that watched over us”.

“Because one of our mothers couldn't be there to cheer us on,” she said.