“We Couldn’t Have Done It Without Them”: The Power of RMHC and How You Can Make a Difference This McHappy Day

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
iHeart Podcasts, year more kiss podcasts, playlists, and listen live on.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
The free iHeart app.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Robin Now with Corys the podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Tomorrow is mcappy Day, which means if you can get
into two McDonald's. There's tons of volunteers working at different
macers across the state, and two bucks from every Big
Mac or Big macmeal goes directly to Ronald McDonald House,
which is not McDonald's. It's it's a charity which is
separate for them, and a lot of people don't know that.

(00:47):
We've learned it over the years doing work with them.
You're going to be Wich Macers Corey, Virginia, I believe,
and there's there's going to be a few of us.
I think Matt Gillett's going to be the nice and
a few others.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, it's gonna be good.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'll be at the Cannon Hill Mackers around lunchtime.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
And we have someone who totally understands and knows the
great work that ron McDonald House does, and that is Rebecca.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Hello, Rebecca, welcome, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Nace.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah. So ron McDonald House for a lot of people
that don't know what it actually means, but it's a
place for families to stay when they're predominantly when their
kids need treatment.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
That's correct. Yeah, so it's right across well, there's actually
two houses, one in Hurston and one across the road
from the Children's hospital. So that's where my family and
I stayed. My husband, Breton, I stayed there in twenty
twenty one when our son first went into renal failure.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
So tell us about your son. How old is he?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
He's four turning five next April, and he was born
with the chronic kidney disease. So we found out that
he was sick when I was pregnant with him, and
then we found out exactly what was going on once
he was born and all the tests were run and everything.
So both of his kidneys are just full of cysts,
and he went into end staged renal failure at four

(02:05):
months of age and has been on some form of
dialysis ever since. What's his name, Lachlan. He is the
most sweetest, beautifulest little boy. And then he's got two
big sisters as well who just absolutely dote on him,
Charlotte and Olivia. But yeah, so he went into renal
failure at four months of age, so we came down

(02:27):
here for the first time and stayed for eight weeks
and that was during COVID, so it was just brand
nine Lochlan and then in September of twenty twenty three
he got quite ill and we had to bring him
back down and we haven't gone home since. So we're
originally from Tawoomba and so he had to switch from

(02:51):
home dialysis peritoneal dialysis to in hospital dialysis hemodialysis, and
they tried to get him back on p D for
a couple of months and that failed and they said,
let's just keep him on hemo dialysis until we can
get him a transplant. So we all came down here,

(03:12):
all started living at Ronald McDonald house. The girl started
going to the hospital school and everything was going okay,
and then last July we got the call to say
that there was a kidney ready for him, and it
was probably one of the happiest days of our life.
And then it all changed the next morning and it

(03:36):
didn't take.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
So does that mean he's like his body rejected it, Well, Guessa.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
No, it just was just too big for his little
body to kind of, you know, pump the blood around
and all that sort of stuff. So we nearly lost him,
and so he went back on dialysis in hospital and
then finally last October they managed to get him back
on home dialysis and they decided it was still too

(04:02):
risky for us to go home, so they said, look,
you need to stay here for the foreseeable future until
he can have another success a transplant. And at that
point we'd already been living at Ronald McDonald House for
thirteen months. And then us with his medical team and
like the support workers and social workers and everything, decided

(04:24):
that we it was best if we just relocated. So
we've been here for two years now, Lachland's going as
well as can be and then hopefully, fingers cross, we
can try another transplant next year.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
But you know the amazing work then that run Away
McDonald House does.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
They are honestly the most amazing people, a most amazing charity.
They obviously saw us on our good days and now
severely bad days, and I don't know where we would
have been without them. We wouldn't have all been able
to stay together as a family. For one Brett and
the girls would have had to have stayed back home

(05:05):
into Woomba. I would have had to have stayed here
by myself with Lachlan, which obviously for my mental health
wouldn't have been great.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
And not to mention the cost if you for that, yeah,
thirteen months.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Thirteen months. Yeah, it's literally just mind blowing and we
are so lucky that we were able to literally live
across the road from the hospital and have their love
and support and they really became our family and we
still keep in contact with them and honestly, they are.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Just there is no other reason you need, no just
hearing what Rebecca has said, to go into McDonald's tomorrow.
If you don't want to buy a big Mac, then
buy They've got amazing merchandise, silly socks.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
It's just and you can just put a donation, do
whatever it takes.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
But thanks so much, so much, Thank you.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Go to the Broncos, to your family.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Very big my dad. Yeah, born and bred