LONDON, ONT. -- As families struggle to keep their ill children alive at London’s Children’s Hospital they are getting help to lessen the load when it comes to accommodations.
Ronald McDonald House Southwestern Ontario (RMHSWO) introduced a new program to help keep the home away from home safe.
Through the generous gesture from Hiemstra Trailer Sales, five brand new trailers are on the lot and ready to provide 14-day quarantine for new families with ill children at the nearby hospital.
“It just felt right, I didn’t look at the dollars,” said owner Wayne Hiemstra. “I wanted to do something to help out and this felt good to me.”
Tracey Keighley-Clarke, the CEO of RMHSWO says this is going to help repopulate the house for new families in need during the pandemic.
“You know we have to be safe we have to be slowly re-populating things,” says Keighley-Clarke.
“They're not able to come into the main house during those 14 days because we have families who have critically ill children who are compromised.”
Keighley-Clarke says the new families will have support of the staff until they can move into the house. The trailers will be cleaned and then prepared for the next family.
Drago Pavletic’s two-year-old son Luke has been in hospital in London since October battling leukemia.
His family is from Thunder Bay and knows how important it is to be near an ill child because they have been staying at Ronald McDonald House. He says the new program will be a boost to others.
“It's real great that they support us,” says Pavletic.
“There's families out there they've got sick kids and they need somewhere to stay and this is a great idea they can come in here and quarantine for two weeks and then get moved into the house.”
