Having a child in hospital is unimaginable for families. At Ronald McDonald House Charities UK, they ease some of the burden by providing free ‘home away from home’ accommodation.
The best medical care for your child isn’t always close to home, and families often find themselves travelling long distances to be with their child in hospital.
The Ronald McDonald House Charity has 14 Houses across the UK giving families a warm and comfortable place to rest, eat and relax, just moments away from their child’s hospital ward. Their support is invaluable to families at a critical time in their lives.
The Ronald McDonald House at Birmingham Children’s Hospital is one of their largest purpose built accommodation facilities. As well as providing 66 bedrooms, their Birmingham House offers families the opportunity to cook together, to eat together and share their experiences. The House also offers a lounge, kitchen, play area, and now of course a state of the art cinema room, for families visiting the hospital for the day.
In 2023 1,097 families stayed at the Birmingham House, and the longest family stay was 369 nights.
www.rmhc.org.uk
The first contact we had with RMHC was in June of 2023, and shortly after this I visited the London House at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, and was given a good insight into what RMHC do, how they do it, and the significant and very important difference they make in our community.
At the time the London House wasn’t ready for our help but the Birmingham House certainly was. A trip to Birmingham followed in September and I met with Emma Rogers, the Head of Facilities Management, and her colleague Joanne Howe, Head of Partnerships & Philanthropy, for the Ronald McDonald House Charity. Both were very excited by our offering but with a very busy schedule it was a ‘next year’ project, so with that in mind I waited until December to reach out to potential installers.
With so many installers within striking distance of Birmingham there were almost too many companies that I could approach to help. Some had already been involved with a Together For Cienma installation, but I’m always keen to encourage new installers to undertake one of our installations. With this in mind, and with CEDIA having constant communication with their installer members I asked Matt Nimmons if there was someone that he knew of in the area who might be keen to get involved. Matt mentioned a few, one of whom was Ciaran Wilkins of The Big Picture, and after a quick email exchange, and the Christmas break, Ciaran was on board.
With diaries still being busy for both the Ronald McDonald House and for Ciaran it wasn’t until the end of February that Ciaran was able to visit and assess the room and consider the equipment that might work in the space available.
The room that had been proposed for the installation was perfect in its location, the level of traffic, purpose etc…, however, it was a very challenging shape with lots of challenging angles and ! It certainly wasn’t an installers dream shape to work with and not ideal in terms of structured viewing, balancing the installation of the equipment etc… However, for every challenge there is a wonderful solution to be found. This is of course easy for me to say when ultimately these solutions will need to be found and instigated but the installer, this being Ciaran Wilkins of The Big Picture.
When we visited the Ronald McDonald House it was clear that there was really only one option in terms of how the cinema room would be laid out. It wasn’t ‘ideal’ but it was definitely workable and Ciaran created a design that gave some excellent viewing options, with some additional slightly offset seating that worked to increase audience viewing.
A combination of solutions were needed and these of course included the audio and the visual, but also lighting and automated blinds were needed to create the movie magic that we so wanted to bring to the room, and to the families and their children. With lots of potential users control had to be straightforward hence Ciaran proposed a remote and an on-wall keypad.
The products specified had to be right for the job, and with high use expected, they needed to be ‘hardy’ and give a high quality result. Many of our regular donors stepped up to help and Ciaran kindly donated the balance of the ‘installation consumables’.
All brands mentioned listed below were ‘ready, willing and able’ to donate the items that we needed to make this room happen. With a comprehensive and quality kit list there’s always the concern that we may struggle to make it happen, however, everyone we approached was keen to donate and as mentioned above, all that we had approached had donated several times in the past…
We are of course hugely grateful to all companies that donate to a Together For Cinema project but for this one, being hopefully the first of several for the Ronald McDonald House Charity, it was nice to involve several of our regular supporting donors. Thank you to you all and the kit list reads as follows…
Wednesday 8th May, 2024.
Thursday 23rd January, 2025
5pm on Tuesday 28th January saw the eagerly awaited official opening of the new cinema room, and I was delighted that Ciaran Wilkins (The Big Picture) and Shane Caswell (Webro) were able to join us and represent the AV industry. Beyond us, there were several families and staff and we all gathered at the drinks reception to hear from Vishal Duggal, the House Manager at the Birmingham House. He expressed his gratitude and then outlined the impact that the room will have in the coming years. As Vishal said it’s not something they could ever budget for but the positive impact to those families having a challenging and necessary stay away from their homes is huge…
After this brief reception we went on a short tour of the facility before gathering for the ribbon cutting. Very kindly our VIP guest Emma Conway, a local author and well known blogger known as ‘brummymummyof2’, had the honour of cutting the ribbon to declare the Cinema Room officially open. Speaking afterwards Emma very kindly said that she was ‘very impressed’ by the new room and was amazed that everything had been donated.
Once formally opened, James Ellis, from Stoke-on-Trent, Henry’s Dad said a few very moving words about his stay with his wife, Vicky at the Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham. They stayed on three separate occasions; the first time in February 2020 for 13 weeks, through the beginning of the pandemic. They returned in August that year for two weeks, then most recently in September of 2024, for five weeks. Henry has a palliative condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and has had three open heart surgeries to date.
James was back at the House for the Cinema Room launch and said:-
“I’m blown away by the room. Having stayed at the House on numerous occasions, I’m so grateful for the care and support the wonderful staff have given us over the past five years. This Cinema Room adds something extra special and will help allow families like mine to really switch off amid the trauma of having a sick baby or child in hospital. I think it’s fantastic!”
You’ll all be pleased to hear that Henry is now enjoying life and is a very bouncy and boisterous 5 year old boy with a huge and very charming character!
I left at 6.4pm, and walked back to Birmingham New Street feeling happy and content that we had all helped make a really positive and lasting impact for so many.
“It gives us all at The Big Picture huge pleasure to lend our knowledge and expertise to such a worthwhile project. The new technology housed in the space will, I am sure, create welcome respite for those going through a difficult time; I’ve always felt that cinema has a unique way of taking us outside our own lives and into the lives, and worlds, of others.
I hope that this new space does exactly that, delivering wonder, fun, magic and laughter to anyone who visits.”
Ciaran Wilkins, Director, The Big Picture Ltd
”The timing of the works fitted in perfectly with the long-term maintenance that was being completed in the House. This gave us a real chance to add something extra special to the House in its 15th year. Having helped scope out the idea with Ian, Ciaran and the House team, watching it come to life has been very exciting.
Our families really appreciate having some space to go and relax, and make memories together. Siblings and extended family of young patients are always welcome in the House, and this room will give them a unique place to enjoy ‘family time’, even if for a few hours, to forget that they are away from home with a sick child.
Thank you, Ian and Ciaran, for your hard work to get this completed.”
Emma Rogers, Head of Facilities Management, Ronald McDonald House Charity
THANK YOU…, you have helped make a real difference at the Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham, and in turn, have made a real difference to so many people’s lives.
We’re all aware that charities have to work very hard to secure the funding for most of their operational costs. With the comprehensive and considered cradling of a family through tough times, there is little monies left over for luxuries such as a cinema room.
For the Birmingham Ronald McDonald House this new cinema room is a wonderful addition to their facility and at a normal cost of around £20,000, is something that would not usually be considered as a possibility.
This was Together for Cinema’s 49th good cause cinema room installation and helped take the Together for Cinema good cause community delivery to very nearly £1.3m worth of installations, had they all been paid for.
For Ciaran Wilkins, to bring the cinema experience in house at the Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham is a great gift that will be used and enjoyed by so many children and their families for many years to come, and, importantly, will help make many happy, and very treasured, memories…
Ciaran worked willingly and tirelessly to create a room that delivers the cinema experience whilst working along some of the challenges of installing in a room that was not designed with a cinema in mind!
I hope the ‘feel good’ factor of being involved in such a project, and making a difference to so many lives, is worth more than any payment.
For further details please contact Ian Morrish at:-
Work: 01372 454366 ♦ Mobile: 07768 398007 ♦ Email: ian@togetherforcinema.co.uk
www.togetherforcinema.co.uk
Report created by Ian Morrish. All quotes to be from Ian Morrish, unless otherwise stated.
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