What to know
- The Ronald McDonald House Toronto offers 81 rooms and support services for families who must travel to Toronto for their child’s medical treatment, helping them stay close during difficult times.
- CEO Louise Smith says families could otherwise spend around $25,000 per month staying in the city, while many also face mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression.
- The facility includes shared kitchens, playrooms, a school, a gym, and community spaces designed to create routine and connection for families navigating long hospital stays.
- A new campaign placing a “For Sale” sign outside the house directs passersby to a donation page, highlighting that the house will never actually be sold but relies on community support to keep helping families.
Known as “Canada’s most essential house,” the Ronald McDonald House offers families of sick children more than a place to stay during treatment.
Ashley Whitwell had to move to Toronto from North Bay, Ont. within 24 hours last November, after her son was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
For her, receiving the diagnosis was a moment of “pure shock,” followed by a series of questions about how to seek treatment, afford the move, and find a path forward.
“You definitely get stuck in that moment. There wasn’t really a thought that came to my mind other than pure shock,” she told Now Toronto.
“Secondary to the initial shock in the moment, when you’re down here, it becomes, ‘Where are we going?’ and ‘What does the path look like for us?’ Those things slowly trickle in and each step is sort of a new hurdle in the mountain that you’re climbing.”
After consulting with social workers, Whitwell was redirected to the Ronald McDonald House.
The Ronald McDonald house has facilities all over the country, including Toronto, and has been working for almost 45 years, having helped half a million families of sick children in the country access health care and support.
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“We’re a fairly quick entrance into Ronald McDonald [House], and I could not really imagine not having this place as an accessible feature, because it’s become home for us,” Whitwell said.
“A home away from home”
As explained by Ronald McDonald House Toronto CEO, Louise Smith, studies estimate that families would spend about $25,000 a month to stay with their sick children in Toronto while they receive treatment.
On top of having to deal with treatment costs, the shock of the diagnosis, and working to keep their families together, many parents also experience a mental health toll throughout the process, with 80 per cent of them experiencing clinical anxiety or depression.
Ronald McDonald House provides support beyond just access to treatments, offering 81 comfortable rooms for families to stay with their children during the process, and an entire building of interactive and essential activities, featuring a school, a gym, a collective kitchen, library, play rooms, and more.
The facilities are a way of helping families stick together through the process and reduce the stress and financial burden that often come with treatment.
“When a child is sick in a hospital, families don’t visit, they stay,” Smith said.
“We’re really in downtown Toronto, and the space has been designed to help counteract the freneticness of a hospital. So, if you are in a hospital all day with your child, there’s lots of beeping and noise, and it can be very stressful. And you know, this space is designed so that when you come in, it really helps lower that sense of heightened nervousness.”
Between various interactive spaces in the house, Whitwell says her son’s favourite space is the gym, while for her, the sense of community takes the gold.
“My son’s [favourite space] would be the gym downstairs. Mine is just being able to walk around and see familiar faces, and chat with people. Like I said. I’ve spent many times in this room alone with people, without people, playing foosball, watching the Olympics, those sorts of things. So it becomes a little sense of community that you sometimes lose when you have to move away from your people back home,” she explains.
In addition to facilities where families can stay, the house also offers mental health support and a community space, where parents can connect with each other and also find mutual support.
“I heard two moms…nonchalantly talking about how do you stop sweat dripping in the eyes of your child when they’re going through cancer and they don’t have harrow eyebrows, right? And I just sort of stopped at that moment and I was really struck by the community that gets created here,” Smith said.
“You need to solve that problem as a mom. Where else can you ask that question, where somebody else is going through the same thing, and can have that conversation with you?”
According to CEO Louise Smith, 99 per cent of families staying at the house report that they feel at home and comfortable to be themselves, which speaks volumes to the Ronald McDonald mission.
This includes Whitwell herself.
“It’s a home away from home. My son now, we’ve been here for a long period of time, and he runs around this place. He’s got the gym to play in in the basement. We walk past that fish tank. He talks to everybody now. Honestly, I could not imagine what it would be like without having this place,” she said.
The Ronald McDonald House will never be for sale
The Toronto Ronald McDonald House’s new campaign has residents asking themselves if they are up for sale, but it’s all for a good cause.
Those passing by the house recently might have noticed a large “For Sale” sign right upfront, but it only takes one QR code scan to find that it’s not what it looks like.
The link attached to the sign leads to what looks like a real-estate listing of the Toronto house, with a more in-depth look into what it offers. From there, they are invited to offer a donation to help keep the house up and running, and offer much needed support to families.
Besides the eye-catching sign, the message in the campaign is clear: the Ronald McDonald House could never be for sale.
Those who wish to donate can head to the Ronald McDonald House’s website.
