Ronald McDonald Family Room opens for regional families at Royal Inland Hospital

t’s taken nearly eight years of work, but the Ronald McDonald Family Room is finally open at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.

The space is designed for families at the hospital to use for resting, breaks and meals, without having to leave the hospital campus and be far from their children. It features a living room, a kitchen area, laundry and shower facilities, a play area and a sleeping room. And with Royal Inland caring for more than 1,500 children every year, along with delivering more than 1,000 babies, it’s expected to be well-utilized.

Royal Inland Hospital was packed with dignitaries and donors Friday (June 13), all coming to see the family room built on years of planning and fundraising.

In 2018, the journey started and today, my vision is a reality,” says donor Rae Nixon. Nixon, who is a former emergency nurse, heard talk of some form of Ronald McDonald House for Kamloops, and decided to make a million-dollar donation to see it completed.

“Shortly after my husband Lloyd (Dr. Lloyd Nixon) passed, I was away on a trip with my granddaughter Brenna and I thought, ‘What can I do? How can I give back to my community?’”

After the premature birth of their daughter Mia, the Berry-Brynjolfson family spent 133 days at the BC Children’s Hospital NICU and the Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver.

“The docs told us her best chance of survival is if you, the parents, are there. You know, you talk to her and she’s in an incubator. She’s just tiny,” emphasizes Paul Berry.

Mia is now six years old and her family is relieved that a similar space is available in the Interior.

“To be out of your hometown is really difficult,” adds Kristine Brynjolfson, “so to have the support and somewhere to stay, yeah, it’s unbelievable.”

Marianne and Ted Kowalsky can recall making long commutes to hospital for their son Bryce, now 50 years ago. That memory is what made them contribute $100,000 to the Kamloops room.

“What they went through, we could feel,” Ted explained.

“Oh yeah, it was heart-wrenching listening to them talk about it because we know what it’s like,” adds Marianne.

“That’s why. We wanted to pay it back to Kamloops,” says Kowalsky.

Ronald McDonald House BC and Yukon CEO Richard Pass says stories like those are why the region’s tertiary hospital needed a room.

“We’ve been working on this for a long time, waiting on the renovation part of the development so we could build,” he mentions. “It’s just so good to have it open now and to allow families into the space and to start having the breather that they need, when they need it.”

The 1,100-square-foot room is free for families with sick kids in hospital to use, with costs covered by donations to the Ronald McDonald House Charity, including the recent fundraising push Kamloops saw during McHappy Day last month.

“This year with McHappy Day and the donation that my family and my siblings have decided to contribute, we were able to go over $200,000 to the room this year,” explains Brandy Gozda-Sekhon, the owner and operator of McDonald’s locations in Kamloops and Merritt, “which we’re so excited about. This is just going to be the best thing here for Kamloops.”