Ronald McDonald House Charities Central West saves families $1.6m

The Central Western Daily has been a supporter of the house since it first opened in April, 2015.

And the numbers the house has accumulated in those eight-and-a-bit years are nothing short of astounding.

A total of 1363 families have been supported by the Ronald McDonald House in Orange.

Almost 11,000 nights of free accommodation has been provided to families who have come to use the Orange hospital - often with nothing more than the clothes on their backs - to be with a sick child.

The occupancy at the house has remained steady, and if anything the demand has increased with the city's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit (CAMHS), which is the only dedicated child and adolescent mental health unit in NSW outside of Sydney.

Each family tends to stay on average around three nights. The longest stay from one family has been 175 nights.

Over $1.6 million has been saved by families who've used the house.

The families that have used the house have come from far and wide. From Albury to Walgett and then Springwood on the Blue Mountains and Baulkham Hills in north-west of Sydney and out to Broken Hill in the west. One family was from Alice Springs, while there's been some from Victoria, the Central Coast, South Australia and the ACT.

Perhaps more crucially, it's also provided a lot of our direct neighbours with the ability to stay close to their child without the need to either head up and back along country roads or add further burden by forking out for night-after-night's worth of accommodation.

Think Parkes (238 nights), Forbes (127), Cowra (117), Condobolin (107) and Mudgee (48). The house is so valuable to those who live in our region, the facility signed off on a name change last year; it's now known as Ronald McDonald House Charities Central West.

But perhaps the most impressive number of all is this: 96,451. That figure represents the amount of hours volunteered to help the house offer the absolute best care and support the families need, when they need it most.

On Friday I was lucky enough to have a tour of the house. From the donated meals, to the donated blankets, food, bathrooms essentials, clothes ... you name it, Rebecca Walsh and the team have it there at the ready.

And it is genuinely because of the good will of the community.

This house is truly something we, as people from Orange, should be extremely proud of. Not because we're one of the few cities in regional NSW to have one, but because we're able to maintain and support it through the generosity and kindness of our people.

Naturally, the house could always do with a few more volunteers. And anyone looking at giving up some spare time to pay it forward a little bit would love their time at the Ronald McDonald House at the rear of the Orange Health Service.

But those who are there already, and Rebecca's team, are doing an incredible job. Our whole region is lucky to have them all.

Nick McGrath, editor

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