Ronald McDonald House Charities: 50 years of global essential service

RMHC WA supports around 2000 families across the state each year when a child becomes ill or injured. Some stay for days, others for months, and some rely on the supported accommodation and services for years.

“In a state as vast as Western Australia, when a child becomes ill or injured, this can place significant financial and emotional burdens on families particularly from the regions, affecting their wellbeing, family life and future plans,” RMHC WA CEO Peter King said.

RMHC WA gives families wrap-around support as they go through the hospital experience, helping to alleviate the financial and emotional burden when dealing with a sick or critically ill child in hospital far from the support of home. 

“When you see a family going through the turmoil of having an ill or injured child and being far away from their home and their support networks, it’s challenging to think what families would do without us," Mr King said.

“For family to spend somewhere between five and 700 days within this course of their journey is not uncommon.”

RMHC WA’s impact framework, developed by Social Ventures Australia, measures the wellbeing of families in four key areas: emotional, financial, physical environment, and cultural. “We believe that the wellbeing of families is inherent to the wellbeing of our community,” Mr King said.

The annual impact reports show RMHC WA’s supported accommodation is fundamental to the financial and emotional wellbeing of families going through the difficulties of managing life with a sick child.

In 2023, 75 per cent of the families said that without RMHC WA their emotional wellbeing would have poor and 72 per cent said that their financial wellbeing would have been stressful and difficult to manage should that not had access to this essential service.

^{RMHC WA CEO Peter King.}

“Each year, we analyse our impact data to develop a deeper understanding of the problems families face and work alongside the maternity, child and adolescent health systems. Our programs and services help to alleviate these pressures, enabling families to focus on what really matters: caring for their child,” Mr King said.

“We can tell by the demand and by our research that without this support, people would be in trouble. We often have families say to us that if they couldn’t stay here, they would have had to sell a house or give up work."

RMHC’s mission partner

For over 50 years, McDonald's has been the global mission partner of Ronald McDonald House Charities and enabled the purchase of the very first House in Philadelphia, USA. Today, there are 390 Ronald McDonald Houses in 48 countries worldwide. 

The global charity was started by a Philadelphia Eagles football player, Fred Hill, whose daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and was being treated at the children’s hospital.

Not wanting to leave their child, Hill and his wife Fran slept on hospital chairs and ate food from vending machines. They saw other parents doing the same thing as many of them had travelled great distances to bring their children to the medical facility, but the high cost of hotel rooms was prohibitive.  

Hill rallied the support of his teammates to raise funds to help other families experiencing the same emotional and financial trauma as his own. He reached out to people who could help and partnered with McDonald’s to build a house for families with children with cancer.

In Western Australia, McDonald’s was integral in their support of the first Ronald McDonald House which was established in Subiaco in 1990.

Glenn Barker and his wife Beverly were the pioneers who helped establish the first Ronald McDonald House in WA after their son Adam was diagnosed with leukemia in 1985 and began intensive chemotherapy at Princess Margaret Hospital. They saw families sleeping in cars, couch surfing and doing whatever they could to accommodate themselves during the difficult time of looking after a sick child.

With a mission to find support for families like them, they formed a steering committee with other parents whose children were also receiving treatment in the hospital’s cancer ward and, with the help of local McDonald’s licensees, raised funds to build a 12-bedroom house for families with children receiving cancer treatment, on a site donated by the hospital.

“Glenn and Beverley Baker who founded the charity in Western Australia have lived experienced of not having anywhere to stay while their child was in hospital,” Mr King said. They formed a steering committee with local McDonald’s owner operators and built that first 12-bedroom house which later expanded to 18 rooms. 

Today, RMHC WA receives support from corporate organisations which can give to the charity in a number of ways - including Adopt a Room at one of three Houses (Ronald McDonald House at QEII, Ronald McDonald House on Park and Ronald McDonald House in Perth Children’s Hospital), sponsoring services, volunteering, or participating a corporate team for the overnight walking marathon Up All Night. Individual donors can support through regular giving or one-off donations. 

McDonald’s licensees are still today heavily connected in fundraising to the organisation here locally, together contributing about $1.5 million dollars a year in WA.

In Western Australia, corporate partners, community groups and the general public alongside local McDonald’s WA licensees continue to support WA families when they need it most. “By supporting RMHC WA, you’re empowering us to support family wellbeing at a time when they need it most,” Mr King said.

RMHC WA’s expansion

Dedicated to providing vital programs for families with ill or injured children, RMHC WA has since opened a 47-bedroom House in Nedlands and a 14-bedroom House inside Perth Children’s Hospital.

“We have supported sick children and their families for over 34 years. Through our accommodation and support services, we strive to keep families together when life gets turned upside down due to a child’s illness,” Mr King told Business News.

In 2023, the McGowan Government announced an investment of an additional $9.6 million over the next five years in Ronald McDonald House Charities WA. The government also approved an additional 50 rooms on a temporary basis to increase their total capacity to help around 100 families at a time to support more children and families in WA.

“With demand outweighing capacity, coupled with the WA Department of Health’s future modelling – which identified an increase in demand on the Western Australian maternity, child and adolescent health systems – it became clear that we need to permanently expand our core services to create long-term positive impact not just for families but also regional communities and the health systems,” Mr King explained.

In April 2024, Premier Roger Cook and Minister for Health Amber-Jade Sanderson announced a further $2.5 million government investment for developing a business case to expand RMHC services, which comes at a critical time for Western Australian families with ill or injured children. The business case outlines the crucial need for government funding to expand the Ronald McDonald House at QEII from 47 rooms to 147 rooms.

By more than tripling its current capacity, RMHC WA will not only be able to support the growing number of families in need of short-term, long-term or indefinite accommodation close to Perth Children’s Hospital and King Edward Memorial Hospital, but will also be supporting the emotional and financial wellbeing of families at a time when they need it most.

“Simply put, more and more families do and will need access to our essential services, and with a goal of ensuring that no family who needs us is turned away the support of the State Government, corporate organisations and the WA community is critical,” Mr King added.

RMHC WA’s supported accommodation and programs are run by a hard-working team of staff and volunteers, aided by the generous support of donors, sponsors and corporate partners, as well as government funding. 

“We see it as a three-way partnership between government and business. Everybody’s contributing to the wellbeing of community. We rely on significant community sector funds to raise about $6 million a year to provide our services. Corporate relationships are absolutely critical to making that happen. We simply couldn’t do what we do and we couldn't have growth plans on the table without commitment from those organisations," Mr King said.

To support RMHC WA’s mission, please reach out to the organisation to find out what you can do, whether it’s donating, fundraising, getting involved in a corporate event, or becoming a corporate partner.