The day after Ronnie was born his oxygen saturations deteriorated in the Maternity ward in the Balfour and he turned blue. We were air ambulanced to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow with a suspected heart condition.

After an echo scan, it was confirmed that Ronnie had a heart condition and required surgery. As you can imagine, this was very traumatic and brought a lot of uncertainty for us as new parents.

We were told we would be here for a long time, possibly months so the nurses put in a referral for Ronald McDonald House. We arrived not knowing what to expect, we just knew there was a shared kitchen. Immediately, we realised how fantastic the facility was; modern, well thought out accommodation, providing us with a home from home when we felt at our most vulnerable but most importantly located close to our baby, Ronnie. The staff are friendly, caring and wonderful; in the seven weeks we’ve been here, have supported us daily and helped us and other families celebrate Mother’s Day and also Easter with presents and Easter eggs.

The house is run solely on donations and is staffed 365 days a year. “Running at 95% – 100% capacity every day, the current average length of stay is 36 days, whilst the the longest stay was just over 4 years. “ - https://www.ronaldmcdonaldhouse.co.uk/about-us/help-families/

Sheena and Yvonne asked me if they could do some fundraising for this facility and I’m delighted to share with you that they’re holding a coffee afternoon in Stronsay to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House. If anyone would like to donate a raffle prize to the event please get in touch with Sheena or myself, ditto if you’d like to buy raffle tickets and can’t attend.

Unfortunately we won’t be able to attend the event but we really hope you can all support this cause close to our hearts

Kevin, Jacqui and Ronnie 💙