Latest / Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast / Episode 47 - With Jazz Hind from Ronald McDonald House Charities

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Episode 47 - With Jazz Hind from Ronald McDonald House Charities · Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast

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Speaker 1: You are listening to Tom's Hirshprung's Podcast, where I provide
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Speaker 1: a look into the remarkable experiences of the most inspiring
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Speaker 1: people around Hirshprung's disease and sports. Hello and welcome to
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Speaker 1: episode forty seven of Tom's Hirshprung's Podcast. Something a little
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Speaker 1: bit different for you today. This won't necessarily be a
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Speaker 1: personal story, personal journey, but I believe it's something incredibly
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Speaker 1: relevant to an awful lot of people that I've spoke to,
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Speaker 1: either on the podcast or away from the podcast. So
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Speaker 1: what I have for you today is the marketing officer
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Speaker 1: for Ronald McDonald House UK Jazz. Welcome Jazz.
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Speaker 2: Hi Tom, thank you so much for having me.
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on, because I know
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Speaker 1: you're always incredibly busy at the roller with donald House,
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Speaker 1: so thank you so much for sparing forty five minutes
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Speaker 1: for us in what is undoubtedly going to be something
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Speaker 1: that is incredibly relevant, certainly to a lot of people
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Speaker 1: that have already been on the show talked in detail
1:34
Speaker 1: about the great time and how much you've supported that.
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Speaker 1: So thank you so much for coming on. I'd like
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Speaker 1: to start, if I may work from the beginning. I
1:45
Speaker 1: think that's probably a good place to start. So Ronald
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Speaker 1: McDonald House Worldwide has been around for just over fifty years.
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Speaker 1: I think we celebrated the fifteenth of October. We're now
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Speaker 1: recording this on the twenty nine the congratulations on your
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Speaker 1: your fifty year anniversary. Would you like to tell us
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Speaker 1: how how we've all got started?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, So Ronald McDonald House Charities UK has turned
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Speaker 3: thirty five years this year and we are part of
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Speaker 3: Ronald McDonald House Charities Global, which yes, started in nineteen
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Speaker 3: seventy four. It currently has over one thousand and thirty
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Speaker 3: programs worldwide in sixty two countries and regions. And yeah,
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Speaker 3: really kind of exciting history. So it was it was
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Speaker 3: an idea that came from a pediatric oncologist in America.
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Speaker 3: Her name was Dr Audrey Evans, and yeah, she was
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Speaker 3: kind of inspired through her work and she got this
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Speaker 3: idea that, you know, families needed to be as close
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Speaker 3: as possible to their children whilst they were receiving treatment.
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Speaker 3: And then there were kind of two other huge players
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Speaker 3: that came into the team. So Fred Hill, who is
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Speaker 3: a player for the Philadelphia Eagles American football team, had
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Speaker 3: a daughter, Kim, who was diagnosed with leukemia and was
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Speaker 3: undergoing treatment, so he kind of rallied behind this idea,
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Speaker 3: as did McDonald's. So yeah, it all came from an
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Speaker 3: idea from Dr Audrey Evans. These two kind of hugely
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Speaker 3: influential partners. People found out, got involved, raised the first
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Speaker 3: kind of huge amount of money to open the first
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Speaker 3: one on McDonald House in nineteen seventy four, which yeah,
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Speaker 3: incredibly exciting. And then in nineteen eighteen nine Ronal McDonald
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Speaker 3: House Charities UK started.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't quite so much of a concoction the Ronaal
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Speaker 1: DoD House UK, so no, so.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it comes from Ronald McDonald House worldwide. So we
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Speaker 3: are a chapter. And yeah, we had we had one
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Speaker 3: house open in London, it's called Guy's House, the Guys
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Speaker 3: in Saint Thomas' Children's Hospital. And now thirty five years
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Speaker 3: later we are fourteen houses strong. We're across the whole
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Speaker 3: of the UK, and yeah, it's it's incredible to kind
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Speaker 3: of be reflecting this year. Obviously you've got our thirty
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Speaker 3: fifth year which we're kind of celebrating, and then to
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Speaker 3: just kind of see globally the impact that we're having
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Speaker 3: in these sixty two countries and regions.
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Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's it's incredible.
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Speaker 1: Fantastic, thank you. But as you mentioned, sixty two countries.
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Speaker 1: So I know, I've spoken to a lot of people
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Speaker 1: on this show from a lot of different countries, some
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Speaker 1: from Canada, America, Australia, all saying, you know, just how
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Speaker 1: much they appreciate the role and McDonald houses because you
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Speaker 1: are effectively there at one of their most difficult times
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Speaker 1: and you are there to support them, help them, just
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Speaker 1: just basically be there for them for whatever they need.
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Speaker 1: What kind of I guess services might not be the word,
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Speaker 1: but I'll use it anyway. Services do you sort of
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Speaker 1: provide but for anybody who hasn't been to the houses,
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Speaker 1: like myself.
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Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, So in the UK we've got fourteen houses.
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Speaker 3: They're all located within minutes walking distance of our NHS
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Speaker 3: partner specialist children's hospitals. And yeah, basically if a family
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Speaker 3: is far away from home, which is often the case
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Speaker 3: when they're having to go to specialist children's hospitals, the
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Speaker 3: medical team at the hospital will refer them to us
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Speaker 3: and they basically just come and stay with us for free.
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Speaker 3: So yeah, our houses are well, they vary they're all
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Speaker 3: different sizes. We've got some that are very much dependent
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Speaker 3: on the kind of need and the kind of size
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Speaker 3: of the hospital. And yeah, they come and stay with
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Speaker 3: us for free for as long as they need it.
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Speaker 3: Last year we supported more than eight thousand families. I
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Speaker 3: think it was eight thousand and four hundred just over
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Speaker 3: and Yeah, they all get their own bedroom, their own
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Speaker 3: en suite bedrooms. They've got hospital line telephones in their bedrooms,
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Speaker 3: and then kind of throughout the houses, we've got communal
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Speaker 3: kitchen spaces, we've got like lounge rooms, playrooms, and then
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Speaker 3: our house team are obviously there all day every day
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Speaker 3: to just kind of be around, shoulder to cry on,
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Speaker 3: to just come and talk to. Yeah, it's a really
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Speaker 3: incredible place, and I think without it, we kind of
7:21
Speaker 3: hear a lot when we're speaking to families during their
7:25
Speaker 3: stay after their stay without it, they genuinely don't know
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Speaker 3: what they do because they'd either be looking at long
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Speaker 3: commutes driving getting the train in that can take you know,
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Speaker 3: hours and hours, it costs a lot of money. They
7:44
Speaker 3: might have to stay in hotels. We've had some families
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Speaker 3: that have slept in their car for a couple of nights,
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Speaker 3: before kind of finding out about us or you know,
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Speaker 3: and that's the general consensus that we get is that
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Speaker 3: without you, we'd be spending a fortune, we'd be incredibly stressed,
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Speaker 3: whereas actually, because of our houses, they can they've got
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Speaker 3: a space, they've got somewhere to call their own, they
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Speaker 3: can bring their stuff from home, you know, they're bedding,
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Speaker 3: they can bring all their clothes, they've got a base
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Speaker 3: somewhere to wash, and they can kind of get a
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Speaker 3: good night's sleep without worrying, you know, if they need
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Speaker 3: to be at that hospital at any time of day,
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Speaker 3: they can be there in a matter of minutes. And
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Speaker 3: I think that's the crucial kind of thing that we
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Speaker 3: just you know, it's it's kind of everyday things that
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Speaker 3: we take for granted, but actually having them right there
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Speaker 3: on the hospital doorstep is really important for families most.
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Speaker 1: Definitely, definitely, and just really from some personal experience. I
8:48
Speaker 1: know you said you're celebrating thirty five years. So when
8:52
Speaker 1: I was in Great Ormand Street, that had been very
8:54
Speaker 1: very new, because I'm thirty two thirty two and the
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Speaker 1: half now, so the Ronal mc donald charities weren't or
9:02
Speaker 1: the houses weren't really around when I was going through
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Speaker 1: what I was going through and things that you mentioned
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Speaker 1: about people having to sleep in various places. I know,
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Speaker 1: you know, my mum was with me in the hospital
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Speaker 1: for all of my operations, a partner of my sort
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Speaker 1: of latest one, and she was sleeping and she said
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Speaker 1: she was sleeping on floors, sleeping in like a big chair. Occasionally,
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Speaker 1: you know, she she'ld have her pillow with her. Occasionally
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Speaker 1: she might get blanket as well. That was sort of
9:35
Speaker 1: a luxury. But you know, and parents who have gone
9:40
Speaker 1: through that, who are you know, either my age or older,
9:45
Speaker 1: have gone through those kind of because you want to
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Speaker 1: be with your child obviously, and yeah, and then you know,
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Speaker 1: do anything for their children, but to be given somewhere,
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Speaker 1: as you said, where they can actually sleep properly, because
10:02
Speaker 1: I haven't really tried sleeping in a chair recently, but
10:05
Speaker 1: I imagine you don't get a lot of sleep, especially
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Speaker 1: obviously going through all of the things and the worries
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Speaker 1: and what have you had in hospitals. So the fact
10:14
Speaker 1: that you can provide that as well is brilliant. And
10:20
Speaker 1: it's not just as you said, it's not just about
10:24
Speaker 1: giving them a facility and saying right, there's bed shower etc.
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Speaker 1: It's that emotional support as well, isn't it emotional support
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Speaker 1: of sort of the people who work within the houses,
10:38
Speaker 1: because you've you've done a little bit about yourself as well,
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Speaker 1: haven't you.
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Speaker 3: I have.
10:42
Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: So I've actually been with the charity. It'll be eight
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Speaker 3: years in November. I've worked as a marketing officer for
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Speaker 3: the last three and before that I actually worked in
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Speaker 3: our Brighton house for five years as a house assistant.
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Speaker 3: So yeah, inducting families into the house and then just yeah,
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Speaker 3: just being there to support them every day.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: So what was your kind of to give people sort
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Speaker 1: of an idea of what your role was before you
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Speaker 1: became the marketing officer Whilst you were in the Brighton houses,
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Speaker 1: you said, obviously you're there to sort of provide support
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Speaker 1: or sort of chat to people, I guess, But what
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Speaker 1: was kind of your overall role I guess.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. So I think it's a hard one to pinpoint
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Speaker 3: because no day was the same. But my kind of
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Speaker 3: core responsibilities were liaising.
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Speaker 2: With hospital staff about referrals.
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Speaker 3: It would be inducting families, welcoming families into the house,
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Speaker 3: showing them around, kind of letting them know, like everything,
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Speaker 3: and then yeah, just being there yea every day, like
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Speaker 3: anything they needed, any questions they had, whether they just
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Speaker 3: wanted to sit and talk about the day that they'd
12:08
Speaker 3: had over a cup of tea. And then on top
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Speaker 3: of that, I looked after kind of like house events
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Speaker 3: and volunteer recruitment. So we have a lot of incredible
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Speaker 3: supporters that do a lot of different things for us,
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Speaker 3: but we kind of love to bring as much kind
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Speaker 3: of of the outside world into the houses so that
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Speaker 3: families don't feel like they're perhaps missing out on things.
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Speaker 3: And that could be anything like we'd throw summer parties
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Speaker 3: and there'd be food and you know, face painting, balloon modeling,
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Speaker 3: and even just simple things like we used to have
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Speaker 3: a volunteer that would come and make decorations for like holidays, Halloween, Christmas,
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Speaker 3: that kind of thing, and it just, yeah, it's it's
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Speaker 3: so much more than just a free accommodation. And this
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Speaker 3: is very much a shared thing across all of the houses,
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Speaker 3: is that it genuinely kind of feels like you're stepping
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Speaker 3: into a home away from home, and it is just yeah,
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Speaker 3: it's it's one of those things where I love talking
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Speaker 3: about our charity and what we do. But until you
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Speaker 3: kind of see it or you have to go through it,
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Speaker 3: it's it's kind of a hard one to pinpoint.
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Speaker 1: But yeah, definitely. And I've seen you run the Instagram
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Speaker 1: account as well. I mean not you personally, but the
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Speaker 1: but that you have the charity Instagram account and it's
13:57
Speaker 1: kept really well up to date and it's I think
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Speaker 1: it's fantastic. It can have seen at the moment as
14:02
Speaker 1: we sit and record this. At the end of October,
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Speaker 1: you're doing a lot of Halloween based activities as well,
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Speaker 1: a lot of decorations. I've seen some pumpkin carving as well,
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Speaker 1: So it's not just sort of you do things that
14:15
Speaker 1: some of you do things at Christmas, but it's like
14:17
Speaker 1: it's like an all year round thing, all year.
14:20
Speaker 2: Round and sometimes because again.
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Speaker 3: The thing is when a child is critically ill, kind
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Speaker 3: of life for families just becomes unimaginable. And you know,
14:35
Speaker 3: a lot of the time they've got other children and
14:38
Speaker 3: it's all little things like this that you don't necessarily
14:43
Speaker 3: think about. When you have a child in hospital far
14:46
Speaker 3: away from home, the most simple things become almost impossible.
14:54
Speaker 3: Having breakfast together as a family becomes you know, virtually
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Speaker 3: impossib and because of our houses, whole families can stay
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Speaker 3: with us, so if they have other children, they can
15:08
Speaker 3: come and stay. And that is again why our house
15:11
Speaker 3: teams kind of try and go above and beyond to
15:14
Speaker 3: put on these fund activities so that there's other children
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Speaker 3: staying with us have kind of you know, that chance
15:22
Speaker 3: to kind of bond with their.
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Speaker 2: Families, but also other people.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and we hear some really lovely things, and we
15:30
Speaker 3: get to all really sweet pictures from siblings that are
15:33
Speaker 3: staying with us, because you know, they to them, it's
15:36
Speaker 3: just like a holiday, it's like the best kind of
15:40
Speaker 3: place in the world. And I just think that that's
15:42
Speaker 3: such a lovely kind of way, especially for siblings because
15:47
Speaker 3: it's again it's a challenging time for them. For them
15:50
Speaker 3: to kind of be able to view it like that
15:54
Speaker 3: is really lovely. And I think as well, it's it's
15:57
Speaker 3: important to mention that on average, a family will stay
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Speaker 3: in one of our houses for two weeks I think
16:06
Speaker 3: sixteen nights to be preciseer just over two weeks, but
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Speaker 3: we've had families stay with us for years, you know,
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Speaker 3: and it can be.
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Speaker 2: That in itself, I.
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Speaker 3: Think can be incredibly difficult, and I think going back
16:27
Speaker 3: to when I was a house assistant, that was almost
16:29
Speaker 3: one of the most difficult parts of the job. When
16:32
Speaker 3: people get to go home, you're almost you're very excited.
16:37
Speaker 2: Obviously, you're like, oh my god, yeah, you get to
16:40
Speaker 2: go home.
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Speaker 3: Amazing, but there's this part of you that's like, oh,
16:45
Speaker 3: And likewise for the families as well, they're like, oh,
16:48
Speaker 3: but we quite like it here now. Actually we've got
16:51
Speaker 3: very used to this. And I think, yeah, I mean,
16:56
Speaker 3: just that in itself, to kind of be able to
16:58
Speaker 3: have those feelings has come out of such a a
17:03
Speaker 3: challenging and just emotionally difficult time is such a beautiful thing.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely. I guess it's it's one of those where
17:16
Speaker 1: you do get because you're seeing these people on a
17:19
Speaker 1: daily basis, several times a day, so I imagine you do
17:24
Speaker 1: sort of become friends, like I guess a little bit,
17:30
Speaker 1: probably not that much, but kind of you do form
17:33
Speaker 1: an attachment. Maybe should I say, but these people because
17:36
Speaker 1: you're going through like they're going through unimaginable staff and
17:42
Speaker 1: you're always there for them. But no, I think that's fantastic.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well then it kind of.
17:51
Speaker 3: It then just kind of gets even better because a
17:54
Speaker 3: family will go home and maybe like a year or
17:59
Speaker 3: you know, even sometimes even a few months if they've
18:01
Speaker 3: got check ups at the hospital, the doorbell at the
18:04
Speaker 3: house will go and you'll open the door and they'll
18:06
Speaker 3: be there and they'll have their child with them. And again,
18:10
Speaker 3: that's such a I know that we kind of cover
18:12
Speaker 3: that quite a lot on our socials when when families
18:16
Speaker 3: come back and visit, because I think that's the true
18:19
Speaker 3: testament of kind of what we're providing that they feel
18:26
Speaker 3: even though they've they've gone, you know, they've gone home,
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Speaker 3: they don't they don't need to use our services anymore.
18:31
Speaker 3: The fact that they want to come back and see
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Speaker 3: us and do what they can and share their stories
18:38
Speaker 3: with us is Yeah, it's it's a really beautiful thing.
18:43
Speaker 1: That's brilliant. And I've seen as well. You've done little
18:46
Speaker 1: speaking of sort of socials, you've done a little tour
18:49
Speaker 1: of the house recently, a tour of one of the
18:51
Speaker 1: houses recently. And it's not just as we said, here's
18:56
Speaker 1: a bed, here's bar, et cetera, et cetera, here's a kitchen.
19:00
Speaker 1: You know, you've got little some of them have got
19:02
Speaker 1: little playhouses in like a garden area and just just
19:08
Speaker 1: making it. That's what I really like. It just sort
19:11
Speaker 1: of making the houses as homely as possible so that
19:17
Speaker 1: it's not just four walls like hospital can feel sometimes
19:22
Speaker 1: it can very much feel as I'm sure you're aware,
19:24
Speaker 1: you know that it is quite sort of it's four
19:29
Speaker 1: walls and you never go out the four walls and
19:32
Speaker 1: et cetera. So so having those home comforts, yeah, must
19:36
Speaker 1: be fantastic.
19:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, completely, And we have actually in the last couple
19:42
Speaker 3: of years, we've we've got an additional program.
19:45
Speaker 2: It's called Grab and Go.
19:48
Speaker 3: And it does what it says on the tin, So
19:51
Speaker 3: all of our all of our houses have tea, coffee,
19:55
Speaker 3: hot chocolate, that kind of thing that is free. Families
20:00
Speaker 3: can help themselves. And there's also kind of like snack provisions,
20:05
Speaker 3: so it might be fruit, cereal bars, that kind of
20:10
Speaker 3: thing that you know, when they're kind of getting ready
20:12
Speaker 3: to go over to the ward, they can make themselves
20:14
Speaker 3: a coffee, they can grab themselves an apple and a
20:17
Speaker 3: cereal bar, and they've they've got something that they can
20:21
Speaker 3: take with them to the ward.
20:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is.
20:27
Speaker 3: Nice.
20:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really nice, really really nice because again you know,
20:31
Speaker 1: having a lot of those worries that I presume a
20:34
Speaker 1: lot of people come to you with the idea of
20:38
Speaker 1: trying to eat something when you're worried. I think, as
20:40
Speaker 1: we all know, when we go through difficult times or
20:43
Speaker 1: worried about something, when something's on our mind, eating is
20:47
Speaker 1: quite tricky. And I've been there myself, and especially when
20:51
Speaker 1: you're worried about someone else and just having something, right,
20:55
Speaker 1: I could just grab this and then have it later,
20:58
Speaker 1: or have it when you know, when I'm a little
21:01
Speaker 1: bit better or really hungry or whatever. It must be
21:04
Speaker 1: such a relief, I guess.
21:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely.
21:08
Speaker 3: And I think even you know, by the time they
21:11
Speaker 3: get up to the ward in the morning, they might
21:13
Speaker 3: necessarily they either kind of lose track of time or
21:17
Speaker 3: they maybe don't want to leave their child to go
21:20
Speaker 3: to the shop and get something. So the fact that
21:23
Speaker 3: we can actually, you know, we've we've now got this
21:25
Speaker 3: additional provision that they can take this on the go
21:30
Speaker 3: food with them is yeah, it's just an additional kind
21:34
Speaker 3: of touch.
21:36
Speaker 1: Most definitely, if we talk about sort of the financial
21:41
Speaker 1: side as well a little bit and donations in terms
21:46
Speaker 1: of how people can donate, and I will probably cover
21:49
Speaker 1: this a little bit at the end as well. But
21:52
Speaker 1: in terms of receiving donations, how do people go about donating?
21:59
Speaker 3: So there's there's lots of different ways people can donate
22:02
Speaker 3: to the charity. They can do it via directly via
22:05
Speaker 3: our website RMHC dot org dot UK. Alternatively our biggest
22:14
Speaker 3: corporate supporter, McDonald's, hence the name.
22:20
Speaker 2: They do it. Do you know what?
22:23
Speaker 3: There is so much that McDonald's do for us, you know,
22:28
Speaker 3: not just kind of allowing us visibility in their restaurants.
22:32
Speaker 3: You know, you can donate a lot of people when
22:36
Speaker 3: they kind of see us or hear about they go, ah,
22:39
Speaker 3: like the McDonald's collection boxes, which you know, we're kind
22:43
Speaker 3: of very much becoming a cashlest society.
22:47
Speaker 2: So we now have.
22:50
Speaker 3: Kiosks. When you place an order on a McDonald's kiosk,
22:53
Speaker 3: it all come up asking if you want to round
22:55
Speaker 3: up or if you want to donate money. They also
22:59
Speaker 3: allow us to be on their app, so you can
23:03
Speaker 3: make donations through their app.
23:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's all of them. I have to say as
23:11
Speaker 1: well when it came to the charity, certainly when I
23:15
Speaker 1: started this podcast, I'll freely admit I was quite ignorant
23:20
Speaker 1: in terms of knowing about the charity. I had no
23:23
Speaker 1: idea obviously, because I wouldn't have stayed there or my
23:28
Speaker 1: parents would have stayed there, because it would have been
23:30
Speaker 1: probably not many would have been built at the time,
23:32
Speaker 1: And especially the little boxes when you go to McDonald's.
23:35
Speaker 1: I didn't know necessarily what they were for. And I'm
23:40
Speaker 1: sure I'm not the only one who who would have
23:45
Speaker 1: just sort of seen them and go, oh, well, that,
23:47
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what that's for or whatever.
23:49
Speaker 1: So kind of then talking to you and talking to
23:55
Speaker 1: other people who've stayed there and then going, oh, actually,
23:58
Speaker 1: that little box there does make a huge difference, and
24:01
Speaker 1: it leads to all of the wonderful things that we've
24:05
Speaker 1: talked about and all of the help and all of
24:08
Speaker 1: the provision and it's interesting just sort of what I mean,
24:12
Speaker 1: you think about how many McDonald's there are in the country,
24:15
Speaker 1: I mean, what like thousands you would imagine, you know,
24:20
Speaker 1: all with those little boxes. Yeah, I mean, just how
24:25
Speaker 1: much support they offer as well is fantastic. And I think, well,
24:32
Speaker 1: I hope I'm not the only one who is that different,
24:35
Speaker 1: and not everybody knows this, and it's not just.
24:39
Speaker 2: The I think It's just one of those things, isn't it.
24:43
Speaker 3: Where until you kind of either need something or until
24:50
Speaker 3: you kind of know somebody that's had that experience, I
24:57
Speaker 3: kind of get the feeling that that's more what it is,
24:59
Speaker 3: rather than people just you know, ignoring it. I think
25:03
Speaker 3: it's it's more a need basis or you know, it's
25:08
Speaker 3: that kind of a motive, because I find I've had
25:12
Speaker 3: this conversation a lot.
25:13
Speaker 2: You're certainly not.
25:16
Speaker 3: And it's you know, usually families like when you put
25:19
Speaker 3: them in, they go, I've always seen you know, the
25:21
Speaker 3: collection boxes or you know, they asked me to round up.
25:24
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that this is where it comes. And
25:28
Speaker 3: I think that, you know, as much as we are,
25:32
Speaker 3: we're incredibly lucky to have the support of McDonald's and
25:35
Speaker 3: we have actually hit so they have in total in
25:39
Speaker 3: the last thirty five years, raised one hundred million pounds
25:44
Speaker 3: for our charity, which is an unbelievable amount of money.
25:50
Speaker 3: You know, we've gone from having one house to fourteen houses,
25:53
Speaker 3: and without that kind of support from McDonald's that would
25:57
Speaker 3: not have been possible. But on top of that, it's
26:02
Speaker 3: it's the kind of awareness it's talking about the charity
26:06
Speaker 3: sharing information about the charity, fundraising for the charity, because
26:12
Speaker 3: as much as we have this incredible support from McDonald's,
26:16
Speaker 3: you know, it does cost a lot of money to
26:19
Speaker 3: run our houses, maintain our houses. We obviously are our
26:25
Speaker 3: core mission is for every specialist children's hospital in the
26:30
Speaker 3: UK to have free, homely and supportive accommodation.
26:36
Speaker 1: And then in terms of the fundraising and what kind
26:39
Speaker 1: of things do you do, you do for the fundraising.
26:44
Speaker 3: So there are so many different ways to fundraise for
26:50
Speaker 3: the charity. All of the information can be found on
26:54
Speaker 3: our website. But we not only host our own events,
26:58
Speaker 3: so we're kind of we have places at all of
27:02
Speaker 3: the major challenge events like running treks, skydives, that kind
27:07
Speaker 3: of thing. We also support fundraisers in whatever they want to.
27:12
Speaker 2: Do, so we kind of we kind of do a
27:15
Speaker 2: bit of.
27:15
Speaker 3: Both, and we very much tailor support to each individual
27:20
Speaker 3: fundraiser and people very often will reach out to us
27:24
Speaker 3: and it might be that they're doing a fun day,
27:26
Speaker 3: or they're hosting a quiz night, or they're doing their
27:29
Speaker 3: own sponsored walk that kind of thing, and we'll steward
27:33
Speaker 3: them through that, we'll support them every step of the way,
27:37
Speaker 3: or alternatively, if people aren't really quite sure what they
27:41
Speaker 3: want to do to fund raise, they can go through
27:43
Speaker 3: our website and look at all of the different events
27:45
Speaker 3: that we host and they can be a part of
27:48
Speaker 3: it that way.
27:49
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. I think it's really good that there's so
27:52
Speaker 1: many different ways as well, because I think sometimes when
27:57
Speaker 1: people think about fundraising, they think about like one or
27:59
Speaker 1: two different ideas that well, I'll run a marathon, or
28:02
Speaker 1: I'll do which, which is fantastic, which is brilliant, but
28:05
Speaker 1: not always everybody's cup of tea. To run a mountain,
28:09
Speaker 1: or to you know, walk however far or whatever, or
28:16
Speaker 1: have a bake sale. There's usually another. Yeah, there's also
28:19
Speaker 1: another good one. But I have seen on your website
28:22
Speaker 1: you I mean, there's you know, anything and everything on
28:26
Speaker 1: there isn't there with so many people, And it's wonderful
28:31
Speaker 1: how creative some people can be when going, oh, I'm
28:35
Speaker 1: going to do this for charity or that charity, or
28:38
Speaker 1: take on this challenge whatever it might be. It doesn't
28:41
Speaker 1: always have to be a physical challenge. I think that's
28:44
Speaker 1: where that's where there's always some confusion. It always has
28:47
Speaker 1: to be, you know, I've got to climb a mountain
28:49
Speaker 1: or I've got to do this or whatever. But it
28:53
Speaker 1: can be it can be loads of other things, and
28:56
Speaker 1: I think it's great that you've got because also it's
28:58
Speaker 1: a difficult way to start. Sometimes you think, I want
29:01
Speaker 1: to I want to do this thing and I want
29:02
Speaker 1: to help people and I want to raise money for this. Yeah,
29:05
Speaker 1: and how do I go about it? I think there's
29:09
Speaker 1: not many websites that I see out there that go, oh,
29:12
Speaker 1: you could do this or you could do that. Sometimes
29:15
Speaker 1: all it takes is just sparking an idea in someone
29:19
Speaker 1: and they go, oh, wow, I'm going to do that,
29:21
Speaker 1: and you do that, which I think is fantastic.
29:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, completely, And I think as well, I know our
29:30
Speaker 3: fund raising teams are kind of incredible at supporting people
29:35
Speaker 3: with those initial ideas. So we do get asked a lot,
29:40
Speaker 3: you know, I really want to do some sort of
29:43
Speaker 3: fund raising What can I do? And Yeah, I think
29:48
Speaker 3: that's kind of an important part of it, because, as
29:51
Speaker 3: you say, one type of event isn't everybody's cup of tea,
29:55
Speaker 3: and that kind of flexibility one not only kind of
29:59
Speaker 3: catered to it everybody, but you just get to see
30:02
Speaker 3: the most incredible things that we've honestly, we've you know,
30:06
Speaker 3: we've watched people kind of row oceans to raise money,
30:11
Speaker 3: climb mountains, but also the cake sales. We've also had
30:15
Speaker 3: school children that have like made friendship bracelets for like
30:20
Speaker 3: a craft fair at their school and then they've donated
30:24
Speaker 3: or and you know, it's things like that that we
30:27
Speaker 3: we love sharing on our social media.
30:29
Speaker 2: We love hearing about it.
30:31
Speaker 3: Because there are so many incredible things that happen to
30:37
Speaker 3: ensure that we can keep supporting families.
30:42
Speaker 1: That's brilliant. And I think if anybody either listening to
30:45
Speaker 1: this or has seen the work, the fantastic work that
30:49
Speaker 1: you do, that is thinking about donating, would you advise
30:53
Speaker 1: them but isn't sure, would you advise them to just
30:55
Speaker 1: sort of send you an email or a call or
30:58
Speaker 1: just get in touch with you.
30:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.
31:01
Speaker 3: I think if anybody kind of wants to know more
31:03
Speaker 3: information or has any questions, I think going to our
31:08
Speaker 3: website RMHC dot org dot uk and contacting us through
31:14
Speaker 3: that it will go directly through to our supporter care team,
31:17
Speaker 3: who do exactly that they care for our supporters. They
31:21
Speaker 3: deal with any questions, any advice, any information that people need.
31:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, fantastic and if we talk a little bit as
31:31
Speaker 1: well about the future, especially the UK charity sort of
31:37
Speaker 1: the worldwide stuff at the moment, but in terms of
31:41
Speaker 1: the future of the UK charity, where do you see
31:46
Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk about the you know, where
31:48
Speaker 1: do you see it in five years or ten years
31:50
Speaker 1: or whatever, because I think that's always a really difficult question.
31:53
Speaker 1: But in terms of the future, I know you said
31:56
Speaker 1: you want basically as many as many houses as possible,
31:59
Speaker 1: I guess, but where do you see the charity going?
32:05
Speaker 1: Because you've already gone from one house in nineteen eighty
32:09
Speaker 1: nine to fourteen houses now in twenty twenty four, where
32:15
Speaker 1: do you see it going?
32:18
Speaker 3: I think the future of Ronald McDonald House Charities UK
32:23
Speaker 3: is to obviously continue on our mission to be providing
32:28
Speaker 3: families with a home away from home. And you know,
32:31
Speaker 3: the hope is, as I've touched on, to have a
32:36
Speaker 3: house at every specialist children's hospital, and on top of that,
32:40
Speaker 3: I think it's just paying that attention to what can
32:45
Speaker 3: we do, Like you know, yes, we have a home
32:48
Speaker 3: away from home, we have these grab and go food programs.
32:53
Speaker 3: What can we do to ensure that families going through
32:58
Speaker 3: this incredibly difficult time are at ease as much as possible.
33:07
Speaker 3: And I think it's that's kind of all we're ever
33:11
Speaker 3: doing is just observing, kind of reviewing. We we have
33:16
Speaker 3: like family feedback surveys, So when a family leaves us,
33:20
Speaker 3: there's a survey. We're constantly trying to learn what can
33:25
Speaker 3: we do? You know, there's there's always more what is it?
33:29
Speaker 2: What?
33:29
Speaker 3: What else can we do to make this time in
33:32
Speaker 3: a family's life.
33:34
Speaker 2: Easier?
33:36
Speaker 1: Yeah? I love I love that idea of self review
33:39
Speaker 1: and constantly sort of going, Okay, what can we do.
33:43
Speaker 1: We do this, and we do this really really well,
33:45
Speaker 1: and we want to stay doing this really well, but
33:48
Speaker 1: what can we do that makes it better? You know,
33:51
Speaker 1: not necessarily different or anything like that, but but what
33:54
Speaker 1: makes it better? And I love that and I think
33:57
Speaker 1: that's fantastic. And then just sort of one other point
34:03
Speaker 1: that I wanted to touch on that you have now helped.
34:07
Speaker 1: I think we're in the region of one hundred thousand.
34:09
Speaker 1: We might be slightly over one hundred thousand.
34:12
Speaker 2: By the end of the year.
34:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, one hundred thousand families. And I think to
34:17
Speaker 1: put that into a number, I mean that you know,
34:23
Speaker 1: if people think about that you know, that's that's a lot.
34:28
Speaker 1: There's one hundred thousand families, I mean, and then we're
34:31
Speaker 1: potentially talking you know, I guess nearly quarter of a
34:36
Speaker 1: million people. You know, if we said every family is
34:40
Speaker 1: two and a half or whatever, it might be. Yeah,
34:44
Speaker 1: you know, one hundred thousand families probably in and around
34:48
Speaker 1: quarter of a million people. I don't want to put
34:49
Speaker 1: any numbers indies, but yeah, we're talking it might even
34:55
Speaker 1: be more potentially do you ever sort of look back
35:00
Speaker 1: and go, wow, that's that's a lot of people that
35:07
Speaker 1: you know, we've helped, you know, as a team and whatever.
35:11
Speaker 1: Do you know the sort of thing back and go wow,
35:13
Speaker 1: that's that's a really great achievement. Or is it always
35:16
Speaker 1: about pushing forward?
35:18
Speaker 3: I genuinely feel and I think everyone that works for
35:26
Speaker 3: the charity will agree with this. Every single day there
35:33
Speaker 3: is a moment where it's like, wow, this is what
35:38
Speaker 3: we've done, you know, and that comes in that comes
35:42
Speaker 3: in so many forms. So even just things like looking
35:46
Speaker 3: back at our first original house at Guy's Hospital that
35:51
Speaker 3: you know, got relocated and is now Ronald McDonald House Evelina, London.
35:58
Speaker 2: You know, even things.
36:00
Speaker 3: Like that, to our socials, we get comments every day
36:04
Speaker 3: across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and people will be reaching out
36:11
Speaker 3: like we stayed with you eighteen years ago, like so grateful.
36:15
Speaker 3: I don't remember a lot from like do you know
36:18
Speaker 3: what I mean? Like when you look back at your
36:20
Speaker 3: own life, like it's those pivotal moments, and when you
36:23
Speaker 3: get these comments from people from over ten years ago,
36:28
Speaker 3: you're just like, wow, we have we are a core
36:32
Speaker 3: part of that family's journey, and you know, all this
36:37
Speaker 3: time later, they are still so kind of grateful, and
36:44
Speaker 3: it's it's, yeah, it's a really humbling It's yeah, just
36:50
Speaker 3: every single day, I think there is something that just
36:54
Speaker 3: makes us go wow.
36:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think it's it's definitely well worth
37:02
Speaker 1: looking back occasionally and going, oh, wow, we did that,
37:05
Speaker 1: you know. And yes, everyone wants to get better, everyone
37:08
Speaker 1: wants to move forward. Everyone wants more and more and
37:10
Speaker 1: more and more and more. And I totally get that.
37:13
Speaker 1: But it's sometimes I find that it's you look back
37:17
Speaker 1: and you go, yeah, we did that as a team,
37:20
Speaker 1: you know, or I did that or those particularly and
37:24
Speaker 1: you've mentioned as well, you know, you can still remember
37:27
Speaker 1: specific people coming to you, you know, several years later
37:32
Speaker 1: or whether you see them for a few days at
37:35
Speaker 1: the house and then you never see them again. You know,
37:38
Speaker 1: you hold those memories and I think that that's that's
37:41
Speaker 1: a really really lovely thing. And just just very quickly
37:45
Speaker 1: before we wrap up, and then we talked about a
37:49
Speaker 1: little bit about where where people can can donate if
37:53
Speaker 1: they want to. You just basically keep up today with
37:57
Speaker 1: with what's going on. Where whereabouts can they find that?
38:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, so if people want to keep up to date
38:06
Speaker 3: with the charity what we're up to, i'd suggest looking
38:10
Speaker 3: at our social media. So we're at r m HC
38:14
Speaker 3: UK on every platform or even on our website, which
38:21
Speaker 3: I think I've mentioned a couple of times, but RMHC
38:24
Speaker 3: dot org dot UK. Yeah, so across our social media platforms.
38:30
Speaker 3: So we're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok or X Sorry
38:36
Speaker 3: I don't it's still it is still twit isn't it.
38:41
Speaker 3: And yeah, you can find us across socials. We are
38:43
Speaker 3: at our m HC UK or via our website r
38:49
Speaker 3: MHC dot org dot UK. There's all kinds of information
38:53
Speaker 3: on there. There's background, there's information about every house, there's
38:57
Speaker 3: information about how to donate, how to fund how to
39:00
Speaker 3: get in touch.
39:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, like you and I think on behalf Be and
39:08
Speaker 1: so many people I've talked to and presumably so many
39:12
Speaker 1: people I'm yet to have on the show. Just a
39:16
Speaker 1: huge thank you to you and to your team and
39:21
Speaker 1: I guess for Ronald Donald charities throughout the world for
39:24
Speaker 1: everything that you've done and continue to do, because you
39:28
Speaker 1: have been a literal lifesaver to so many families. And
39:35
Speaker 1: just say thank you so much for everything that you do.
39:40
Speaker 2: Thank you, Tom.
39:40
Speaker 3: Honestly, it's it's made my day being able to come
39:44
Speaker 3: on this podcast and talk about the charity. Yeah, it's
39:50
Speaker 3: it's kind of it's one of those really strange things
39:53
Speaker 3: where everybody that works for the charity believes in it
39:58
Speaker 3: so much, and it's kind of when you when you
40:02
Speaker 3: hear how much of a difference it's made, it's it's
40:08
Speaker 3: really difficult to put into words, but it's it's just incredible.
40:13
Speaker 3: And especially yeah to your to your podcast guests and
40:16
Speaker 3: to your listeners. I really hope it's been a valuable,
40:20
Speaker 3: a valuable episode. I'm really excited to listen to it
40:23
Speaker 3: back and to see if we have kind of people
40:27
Speaker 3: coming forward and asking more questions.
40:30
Speaker 1: Thank you, so much. Thank you for coming on the podcast,
40:34
Speaker 1: thank you for having me, Thank you for listening to
40:40
Speaker 1: the podcast. Find us on Instagram Tom's Underscore Hirshbrung's Underscore podcast.
40:46
Speaker 1: Listen to previous episodes on Spotify by searching Tom's Hirshbrung's podcasts.