Ronald McDonald House struggling to support whānau following biggest year ever

Ronald McDonald House may not be able to keep up with the holiday demand in the coming years following their biggest year ever.

The charity - that provides free accommodation and care to families whose children are in hospitals - had nearly 4500 families stay at their houses around Aotearoa last year.

Ronald McDonald House may even be forced to charge the families of sick children who stay in their accommodation because of the increasing costs and demand.

Chief executive Wayne Howett told First Up they were struggling to keep up.

"We have rising costs just like everybody else, everybody is struggling, so their wallets are half the size of what they were. We still get the same number of supporters but the actual dollar value has decreased significantly.

"It makes it really tough."

Howett said that demand didn't take into account the areas where the charity had not established Ronald McDonald houses but communities would like to have them.

He said the struggles with demand hadn't come as a surprise.

"You don't have to be much of an accountant to see if you keep increasing demand, keep increasing costs and your revenue starts shrinking, you're gonna be heavily in the red real quick," he told RNZ in September.

"We have seen many agencies like ours closing their doors."

Howett said they were trying to encourage people to give a little extra to families who didn't have the privilege of being at home with their loved ones during the holiday period.

"You might not have had to experience being in the position that some of these families are in. That doesn't mean it's not going to happen tomorrow and maybe it's not you, maybe it's your brother or your sister's kids, or your grandchildren.

"Even the smallest things make a huge difference, so we try and take all those small matters away so [parents] can focus on their child in the hospital," he said.

Howett said toys, food and cash donations were well received at this time of year with about 100 families staying with Ronald McDonald House on Christmas Day.

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