Our history

Ronald McDonald House Charities was born out of an unlikely partnership between a doctor, McDonald’s, and the Philadelphia Eagles. Fred Hill, a player for the Philadelphia Eagles, had a daughter suffering from leukaemia, and the team was inspired to raise in excess of $100,000 to support the hospital.

This gift was received by Dr Audrey Evans, an oncologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who also responded with a request for another $32,000 to fund a House in which the families of the children in the hospital could get proper rest, away from the ward. In turn, this request was met by Ed Rensi, an area manager for McDonald’s, who had the idea of donating the proceeds from the McDonald’s ‘Shamrock Shake’ to the cause.

Thanks to these early supporters, the first Ronald McDonald House opened its doors in Philadelphia on 15 October 1974.

Globally, the Ronald McDonald House Charities programs support families by providing stability and the vital resources they need to focus on what’s most important – their child. The organisation supports family-centred care by enhancing the child and family’s hospital experience, providing families with emotional and physical comfort and support, and improving the family’s coping and cohesion during the child’s recovery.

As well as our 14 Houses across the UK there is also a further House in Glasgow run by an independent charity.

Born in 1925, Dr Audrey Evans was one of very few women studying medicine in the 1940s. Today, Dr Audrey Evans is recognised as a world-renowned paediatric oncologist and researcher of neuroblastoma, a cancer affecting babies and children. In the 1960s, she was recruited by Dr C Everett Koop to open an oncology service at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr Audrey and her team began to see patients from a greater distance, not just from Philadelphia. It was this experience that sparked her vision to give families a place to live whilst their children are undergoing treatment.