Ronald McDonald House Oxford
From 2017 we have been lending our helping hand of love towards the Ronald McDonald House Oxford. We were before the end of 2019, we were delighted to have achieved our ambitious £5,000 target to sponsor a family room within the new 62-bedroom house.
The Ronald McDonald House Oxford provides free 'home away from home' accommodation for families who have children being treated at the Oxford Children's Hospital, for instance those families whose babies, children and teenagers travel requiring specialist cranio-facial surgery from all over the United Kingdom and spend weeks on end staying at the purpose-built facilities of the hospital.
In January 2007, the current Ronald McDonald House opened its 17-bedroom House located on the top floor of the children's hospital, which currently accommodates around 600 families a year. It costs £25 a night to accommodate a family. Each bedroom sleeps up to four people, the accommodation is free of charge and families can stay for as long as they need, whether its overnight or for over a year.
"Archie underwent two open heart surgeries and spent nearly 60 days on life support! For months his life was in the balance and ours was on hold. We would have slept on the floor just to be near Archie. Instead, we were amazed to find a beautiful room waiting for us at the Ronald McDonald House. Thank you to the most supportive, loving and kind team of staff who had a sixth sense about when to give you a hug or give you space. We can't thank the Oxford team enough and will be forever grateful to them." - Andy Boon, parent, stayed at RMH Oxford
Currently the Oxford House is oversubscribed and in 2018 had to turn 300 families away, due to exceeding demand than they can provide as the current House does not have the capacity to look after every family who needs a place for comfort in the toughest of times and is unable to support any families with babies in Critical Care or Newborn Intensive Care. And, due to the small size of the current House, they cannot provide all the support that other Ronald McDonald Houses across the United Kingdom offer.
Annual running costs for the House total £290,000, and in 2017, Ronald McDonald House and the Oxford Hospitals Charity teamed up.
Building work is underway on the construction of the brand-new 62-bedroom Ronald McDonald House, which based near the Women's Centre on the JR site, is due to open in May 2020. It will also have a wide range of family-friendly facilities, on the hospital campus and a short distance from the children's wards. Once the new House has opened, it means they will be able to help four times the number of families - over 1,000 families a year.
The Ronald McDonald House is more than just a place to stay and has a welcoming communal playroom, lounge and kitchen where families can cook, chat and share their experiences. at Play2Give we worked towards raising £5,000 across three years to sponsor a family room. By October 2019, we smashed our £5k goal, with fundraising events including two rock and roll bingo nights (held in October 2018 and March 2019) which between them raised £630, a danceathon in September 2018 held with the Angels Performing Arts, and our masquerade ball in September 2019 at Didcot Civic Hall saw 154 guests come together for our best ever charity ball with £1,355 donated, amongst tombolas, cakes sales, raffles and more contributing towards the £5K total.
As a result of smashing our goal, we are delighted that the Play2Give family room will open as part of the brand new four-storey house, and we are very excited by this as well as the brand new purpose-built facility.
Now, as of late 2019 and into 2020, we are focusing our fundraising efforts on helping to raise the final £1million needed to 'fit and furnish' the new House. Already we have contributed over £920 to the 'Make Our Oxford House a Home Appeal'!
The Ronald McDonald House Oxford provides free 'home away from home' accommodation for families who have children being treated at the Oxford Children's Hospital, for instance those families whose babies, children and teenagers travel requiring specialist cranio-facial surgery from all over the United Kingdom and spend weeks on end staying at the purpose-built facilities of the hospital.
In January 2007, the current Ronald McDonald House opened its 17-bedroom House located on the top floor of the children's hospital, which currently accommodates around 600 families a year. It costs £25 a night to accommodate a family. Each bedroom sleeps up to four people, the accommodation is free of charge and families can stay for as long as they need, whether its overnight or for over a year.
"Archie underwent two open heart surgeries and spent nearly 60 days on life support! For months his life was in the balance and ours was on hold. We would have slept on the floor just to be near Archie. Instead, we were amazed to find a beautiful room waiting for us at the Ronald McDonald House. Thank you to the most supportive, loving and kind team of staff who had a sixth sense about when to give you a hug or give you space. We can't thank the Oxford team enough and will be forever grateful to them." - Andy Boon, parent, stayed at RMH Oxford
Currently the Oxford House is oversubscribed and in 2018 had to turn 300 families away, due to exceeding demand than they can provide as the current House does not have the capacity to look after every family who needs a place for comfort in the toughest of times and is unable to support any families with babies in Critical Care or Newborn Intensive Care. And, due to the small size of the current House, they cannot provide all the support that other Ronald McDonald Houses across the United Kingdom offer.
Annual running costs for the House total £290,000, and in 2017, Ronald McDonald House and the Oxford Hospitals Charity teamed up.
Building work is underway on the construction of the brand-new 62-bedroom Ronald McDonald House, which based near the Women's Centre on the JR site, is due to open in May 2020. It will also have a wide range of family-friendly facilities, on the hospital campus and a short distance from the children's wards. Once the new House has opened, it means they will be able to help four times the number of families - over 1,000 families a year.
The Ronald McDonald House is more than just a place to stay and has a welcoming communal playroom, lounge and kitchen where families can cook, chat and share their experiences. at Play2Give we worked towards raising £5,000 across three years to sponsor a family room. By October 2019, we smashed our £5k goal, with fundraising events including two rock and roll bingo nights (held in October 2018 and March 2019) which between them raised £630, a danceathon in September 2018 held with the Angels Performing Arts, and our masquerade ball in September 2019 at Didcot Civic Hall saw 154 guests come together for our best ever charity ball with £1,355 donated, amongst tombolas, cakes sales, raffles and more contributing towards the £5K total.
As a result of smashing our goal, we are delighted that the Play2Give family room will open as part of the brand new four-storey house, and we are very excited by this as well as the brand new purpose-built facility.
Now, as of late 2019 and into 2020, we are focusing our fundraising efforts on helping to raise the final £1million needed to 'fit and furnish' the new House. Already we have contributed over £920 to the 'Make Our Oxford House a Home Appeal'!
An artists' impression of what the new Ronald McDonald House, Oxford, once built with 62-bedrooms will look like on the John Radcliffe Hospital site
In June Andy presented a cheque for over £730 to House fundraiser Nathan Swift. The proceeds went towards our £5k goal and was raised through events including sponsored runners, tombolas, Superheroes getting wet and more.
We raised £280 from our first Rock and Roll Bingo Night, held at Didcot's Boundary Park in late October, which with a danceathon earlier in 2018 saw Andy present the first cheque to the House for £916.83, pictured with rock and roll bingo participants.
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Our second Rock 'n' Roll Bingo Night at Boundary Park in Didcot raised a fantastic £350 towards our £5k goal for a family room
Andy presented Lucy at Ronald McDonald House Oxford, with our second cheque of 2018 - raised from various other fundraising efforts, which included supporters running and walking to raise over £1,955 in total throughout the year.
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Oxfordshire fundraising organisation Established 2007 - Changing transforming and saving lives across Oxfordshire
Patrons: Dr Winston Ellis and David Johnston OBE MP Head Office: 3 King Walk, Didcot, Oxon OX11 7PE Email: hello@play2give.org.uk | Telephone: 07939064308 |
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