Join us in raising much-needed funds to build a Ronald McDonald Family Room at Mackay Base Hospital!

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

 Comfort and care - the 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 - research shows that free services provided by Ronald McDonald Family Rooms can save families of hospitalised children on average of $37 a day

 Unlimited smiles from wonderful volunteers!

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