IT’S JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED
MORE than 1000 families will have a place to call home in the toughest of times with the opening of a Ronald McDonald House in Melbourne’s inner north.
Nine-year-old Seth Gordon has an inoperable brain tumour and the House has been a “lifeline” for his family, who have travelled to Melbourne from Wodonga dozens of times over the past two years.
“It’s a place to relax and forget about the worries of the hospital,” Seth’s mother Alisa Blackshaw said. “It’s a place to cook a home-cooked meal when you are so far away from anything you’re familiar with.”
The House has also allowed Seth to be supported through his treatment at the Royal Children’s and enabled him and sister Hayley, 7, to play.
”If he (Seth) is in hospital, he knows mum and dad are across the road,” Mrs Blackshaw said. “It’s a place to make friends and a place to play and a place to be a kid.”
Twenty-five more rooms, art facilities, a communal kitchen, dining areas and a bean bag cinema were added to the Ronald McDonald House offering with the opening of the converted Casa Elda Vaccari in Fitzroy North.