Ronald McDonald House Charities UK provides free ‘home away from home’ accommodation to families with children having treatment in hospital.

Our Houses offer much more than just a place to stay; they provide family activities, peer support, respite, and many other services. This means that families can be by their child’s bedside in a matter of moments, whilst maintaining a degree of normal life with reduced emotional and financial strain.

We help over 6,000 families each year and now, more than ever, we need your support. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

Last month we were in Manchester paediatric intensive care with our youngest daughter Isobel.

It all started with her being irritable, lethargic and not really interested in her feeds on the Friday. We ended up taking her to Royal Preston Hospital in the early hours of Saturday morning and she rapidly went down hill, luckily we were in the right place and not at home when this happened. It was all very scary and at this point we still didn’t know what was wrong with her. She was then transferred to Manchester PICU and put on a ventilator to fight whatever was going on inside. We later found out that she had viral meningitis. Thankfully our little fighter made a speedy recovery with the amazing help from all the doctors and nurses who looked after her.

While we were in Manchester for 10 days (away from our home and 2 other children in Garstang) they applied for us to stay in the Ronald McDonald accommodation. I cannot tell you how big a help this was to us. It is right next to the hospital so we were never too far away from Isobel and it has great facilities for you to be able to have your children visit/ stay with you. This meant so much to us to be able to see our other children in a lovely environment and for them to have a play. It massively lifted our spirits.

We are trying to raise £500 for Ronald McDonald by Joe doing a skydive on the 8th July. We would be so grateful if you would be able to donate to this brilliant charity.

Thank you

Joe, Em, Georgina, Louie and Isobel xxx