Ronald McDonald House

Ronald McDonald House Glasgow gives families a place to stay while their seriously ill child is in hospital. Children come from all over Scotland and further afield to receive treatment at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow and other West of Scotland hospitals.

Many need emergency treatment and can end up very far from home for weeks, months or even years at a time. It helps to keep families together by providing free, high-quality accommodation, only a few minutes’ walk from the hospital.

The Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow is Scotland’s largest children’s hospital and a centre of excellence for oncology, cardiology, cardiac surgery, renal medicine and bone marrow transplantation. Therefore, children with extremely complex and critical conditions from far and wide are treated there.

Based within the hospital campus, the Ronald McDonald House is open and staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The House has 31 bedrooms and helps an annual average of 500 families per year.

Its facilities include private en-suite bedrooms, shared laundry facilities, a library, 2 quiet lounges, a spacious garden and private parking. The large, shared kitchen and dining area has an interactive soft play area for small children which is visible from across the room – allowing parents to cook family meals while siblings play.

Crucially, every bedroom has a phone that is linked directly to their child’s ward, so parents can call or be called to the hospital at a moment’s notice, no matter what time of day or night.

It has been providing this support to families for over twenty-five years, after opening its doors at Yorkhill in 1996. Since then, the team has welcomed over 12,000 families. Running at 95% – 100% capacity every day, the current average length of stay is 36 days, whilst the longest stay was almost 3 years.

The team remain determined to make life as comfortable and easy for them as possible and recently introduced its Grab n Go programme. With the support of the Delamere Foundation the team purchased and filled a new basket system in the reception area topped up with healthy goodies including porridge, snack bars and fresh fruit to keep families filled up and full of energy ‘cost-free’ during what is often a very stressful period in their lives.

“Thank you so, so much for making such a big difference to our families and letting us organise such a simple but vital ‘fuelling station’ for them,” said Nicola Chassels, House Manager.

The grab and go is amazing! It helped us late at night after a long day at the Hospital, but also helped with things you don’t always remember. My little girl would be leaving for school in the morning and the fruit and cereal bar she could take for snack at school was a lifesaver.”

“Even having had breakfast it was handy to have snacks for the day. The intensive care unit uses a lot of ‘Mum energy’ and easy food meant I was able to eat through the day.”

“When my little girl was with us, she loved picking something up, so she had some snacks to have while on the ward seeing her brother. It’s a great idea!”