New Ronald McDonald Family Room at Mackay Base Hospital to Support Local Sick Children

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) North Australia and Mackay Hospital Foundation (MHF) have announced a joint fundraising campaign for a new facility to be constructed at Mackay Base Hospital to support seriously ill and injured children and their families, a Ronald McDonald Family Room.

The Ronald McDonald Family Room proudly supported by MHF will provide a homelike look and feel environment near the Children and Adolescent Unit with free services and the presence of volunteers being key mechanisms to enable family members of hospitalised children to take a break from the wards and increase their well-being.

What our Ronald McDonald Family Room at Mackay Base Hospital will provide:

 Comfort and care - our Family Room will make hospital stays a bit easier by providing families with all the comforts of home within the Mackay Base Hospital

 A relaxing place where family members can take a ‘time out’ when visiting a child receiving treatment at MacKay Base Hospital

 All the comforts of home including a kitchen, laundry, lounge room, nap rooms and lots of room to relax and play

 Cost savings - we know from research that free services provided by Ronald McDonald Family Rooms can save families of hospitalised children on average of $37 a day

 Unlimited smiles from our wonderful volunteers!

There is only one other Ronald McDonald Family Room in North Queensland, located at the Townsville Hospital, and has become a much-loved space, welcoming between 300 – 400 families each month. 

We need your help to raise the remaining funds needed to build our new Ronald McDonald Family Room at Mackay Base Hospital!

Your support will help us care for local Mackay families, like the Melvin family

Dad Sean shares their story:

In 2018 my partner Cara was pregnant with our daughter Dylan. At 25 weeks Cara went into preterm labour and was flown to Townsville from Mackay on the Royal Flying Doctor. The next day I drove up to meet her without knowing where I was going stay or how long we would be there.

The doctors did an amazing job and delayed the birth of our daughter for 10 weeks which allowed her the best opportunity at a healthy start to life. This meant we ended up staying in Townsville for 81 days, and every one of those days we were housed, supported and at times fed by the Ronald McDonald House Charities North Australia. With no income and not knowing how long we would be there, they took an enormous burden off our shoulders. That is without mentioning the emotional and logistical support they provide to all the families who stay with them.

One example of that support is the Family Room located in the hospital itself. Here, there are usually a couple of volunteers who offer a cuppa and something to eat or even just a chat to take your mind off things. There are facilities to wash clothes if you are too far away from home to get back there daily. They have beds so you can get some sleep in a bed instead of a chair in a hospital room. There’s plenty of activities to help keep the kids entertained and the volunteers are always more than happy to help out with anything they can. It is somewhere you can go to feel a bit more at home and get away from the grinding routine of hospital life.

For me, it was somewhere I could go to call home and check in without doing it in a hospital waiting room. Or sit down and have a coffee out of a mug instead of a cardboard cup. It means different things to different people but the one thing it does for everyone is making a bad situation that little bit easier and more bearable in the tough times.

That is why we support this Charity wholeheartedly and believe the initiative to build a Ronald McDonald Family Room at Mackay Base Hospital is a worthy cause for anyone to get behind. - Sean Melvin