Case for support
Build toward a future where no family is turned away
Ronald McDonald House SWO We believe when families are together, they cope better. No family should have to deal with their child’s medical crisis alone.
741 Base Line Rd. East, London, Ontario
Our mission
We provide essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families, and promote healing when children need healthcare.
Our vision
A world where every family has what they need to ensure the best health outcomes for their children.
ThisPlaceIsEverything.ca
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A sick child is a sick family, and we’re going to take care of everybody. Dr. Audrey Evans Co-founder of the first Ronald McDonald House
Right now, we are turning away half as many families as we serve—and those are just the ones that make it onto our waitlist.
Over the past two years, 900 families had to navigate their child’s healthcare journey with no viable alternative to Ronald McDonald House.
Without access to Ronald McDonald House, a family of four will experience $20,000 in monthly costs and the impossible choice of being separated from their child.
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Your support does more than keep the lights on and the fridge stocked; it provides a sanctuary for families of does critically children. You allow Your support moreillthan us to focus on what truly matters—helping our keep the lights on and the children heal and fridge stocked; it bringing provides them home. Ladouceur Family a sanctuary for families of critically ill children, allowing us to focus on what truly matters—helping our children heal and bringing them home. Name Age
View our Families’ Stories of strength
Life changes in an instant
This place is everything
The familiar becomes a lifeline
It starts with a phone call, a fall, a fever that won’t break. One minute you’re living an ordinary life. The next, you’re standing in a hospital hallway, and nothing about your world looks the same. A child’s illness doesn’t just take their health. It takes their sense of safety, their friendships, their routines. It takes yours too. Parents describe this moment the same way, again and again: the feeling that there is nothing they can do. But there is. Research confirms what families already know in their bones. A sick child’s best medicine is the people who love them, close by, every single day. You don’t think about a toothbrush until you’re three days into a hospital stay, speaking to your child’s surgeon, realizing you haven’t brushed your teeth since you arrived. That’s the moment one of our moms, still comes back to. Illness strips away the small, steady things you never thought to be grateful for, a warm meal, a shower, somewhere to sit that isn’t a hospital chair. Our families arrive at every age and stage, every diagnosis, but they all start the same way: none of them expected to be here, none of them prepared for it, none of them thought they’d stay. We take care of the everyday things, so families can hold onto the one thing that matters. Their child.
For families like the Ladouceurs, Ronald McDonald House becomes more than a place near the hospital. It’s the first real meal after days of forgetting to eat, the first hot shower and clean clothes after a blur of highway driving and waiting rooms. Behind our four walls, families get what the hospital can’t give them: a door that closes, a place to fall apart, room to laugh, cry and heal, away from the noise of a crowded hallway.
families were turned away from us last year. Hundreds more never even make it onto our waitlist.
Without our service
Beyond capacity
493
$20K average monthly expenses for a family of four, navigating a paediatric illness.
Accomodation demand
families must travel to access adequate health care for their children.
Distance from home
Travel for health care
2 of 3
10-15 families are typically on our waitlist every night.
249km average distance families travelled to access medical care for their child.
View our families’ stories of strength
Double the number of families served & keep families together Family is everything
A call to community
The growing need for support
With your support, our Beacon of Hope will allow us to: • Address our waitlist and serve 1,000 additional families each year • Provide new and enriched programs tailored to family needs • Create play areas and recreation rooms for children of all ages • Offer a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces that promote well-being • Design adaptable spaces that can respond to public health crise.
Every family deserves to stay together. When a child is seriously ill or injured, parents should be focused on each other, not where they will sleep at night. Ronald McDonald House Southwestern Ontario provides a home away from home for families in their time of greatest need.
Since 2019, the need has grown faster than we can meet it. That’s why we’re launching THIS PLACE IS EVERYTHING, a projected $40 million capital campaign to build a new addition with 40 more rooms to serve every family.
Providing comfort, relief and reassurance
Right now, Ronald McDonald House Southwestern Ontario provides over 20,000 nights of comfort to families each year, helping ease financial and emotional burdens. This expansion will let us offer thousands more nights of rest, relief and reassurance to families whose children are receiving critical care.
The community has always come together in times of need, and we’re turning to you, the region’s leading philanthropists, to make this vision a reality. Your support will directly impact families who need a safe and welcoming place to stay close to their child’s hospital bed, and help paediatric patients heal faster and get back to just being kids.
This place is everything
This place is everything to the families facing the unthinkable. With your help, we can ensure every family finds the space, support and strength they need, when they need it most.
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“I know what it’s like to need this House. Now I get to help build its future. Every year, thousands of families, like yours and mine, find Ronald McDonald House Southwestern Ontario right when they need it most. I do this work because I’ve lived it. I know what it means when your world falls apart, and you need this mission to help you put it back together.” Mike Malleck Campaign Cabinet Co-Chair and leadership donor
Play is everything Every family, regardless of the challenges they face, deserves the chance to experience joy. For children facing serious illness, play is essential. It restores a sense of normalcy, strengthens bonds and helps children heal. The Magic Room will give our kids a place built just for them, somewhere to laugh, imagine and simply be children again in the middle of the hardest days of their lives. Your generosity will expand access to joyful spaces and experiences, creating lasting memories and hope. Together, we can build a legacy of compassion that transforms lives when it matters most.
Rest is everything Rest is a lifeline for families facing medical crises. When your child is sick, sleep becomes a luxury few parents can afford. Research shows that parents who stay at Ronald McDonald House experience better quality sleep than those sleeping in a hospital chair or on a ward floor. That rest isn’t a small thing. It’s what lets a parent walk back into their child’s room the next morning steady enough to ask the right questions and keep showing up for however many days it takes. Some families are only with us for a few nights. Others stay for months. A quiet room, a private space, a comforting bed, these offer real strength for the days ahead. Your support will expand restful spaces that give families the chance to breathe, recover and face tomorrow a little stronger than today.
Nutrition is everything Nutrition is central to healing and connection. In our House, meals offer comfort, routine, and community during times of medical uncertainty. With your support, enhanced dining spaces will nourish families—body and spirit—making every meal a moment of care, warmth, and belonging when it’s needed most. With 15% of Ontario children living in food-insecure environments, our Food & Nutrition program is more critical than ever before. In 2025, we provided more than 101,000 meals to paediatric patient families. Quality nutrition is imperative to their healing journeys because: • Optimizes treatment outcomes • Manages comorbidities • Strengthens the immune system • Improves quality of life
Wellness is everything Wellness is essential for caregivers supporting a seriously ill child. When their needs are met, they can better care for others. Your investment will create restorative spaces that foster balance, resilience, and strength—ensuring caregivers are not just coping, but thriving, throughout every step of their journey.
Keep twice as many families together
Serve them better
Enhance their emotional, economic & health care outcomes
40 new bedrooms
More communal areas for celebration & connection
More private spaces for quiet reflection & important conversations
Be the light in their darkest moments
Ronald McDonald House provides a safe, loving place for families to stay while they seek treatment for their ill and injured children. We deliver wraparound support to uplift patients’ caregivers, so they can show up for their little ones and love them back to health. You are reading this because you share our belief that no family should have to navigate their darkest moments alone. You recognize that what sick children need most is to be surrounded by the people who will hug, kiss and advocate for them, understanding togetherness is integral to their healing journeys. Last year, we turned away half as many families as we served. That means, at their greatest time of need, 513 vulnerable families were forced to face the unimaginable with the added stress of not knowing where they would eat, sleep or heal together. No one should ever have to imagine what it is like to find out their child is facing a critical illness or injury. But, if we do not extend our empathy to think of the thousands of children and caregivers who need us, how can we understand what it is like to be left optionless in our darkest moments? Our Founder, Dr. Audrey Evans, believed, “A sick child is a sick family, and we’re going to take care of everybody.” Today, we are asking you to help us care for every family. Partner with RMHC-SWO to build towards a future where no one is turned away.
W. Matthew Chater Chief Executive Officer