By Tommy Osborne

Ronald McDonald House

UHNBC celebrates opening of new space to keep families together in difficult times

Dec 4, 2025 | 6:09 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The University Hospital of Northern B.C. (UHNBC) celebrated the opening of its new Ronald McDonald House Family room on December fourth. This space gives families a chance to stay with their children when their children are in the hospital, keeping families together during challenging times.

“When families are being treated in local hospitals, then it’s an opportunity to get out of the clinical environment of a hospital and to be able to have a coffee, snack, and then also just have an opportunity to have their kids come to play and just to be together,” said the Ronald McDonald House B.C. and Yukon CEO Richard Pass.

“You show up and they have answered all the questions that you haven’t even considered in terms of like food and housing, but even just the social space. So for our son, there was no sense of solitude, no sense of being stuck on our own,” added Dave Horton, who used the Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver when his son needed surgery.

Horton and his family stayed for 2.5 weeks while their son had spinal fusion surgery, and Horton says the ability to stay with his son during this time was incredibly valuable.

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“It saves a marriage. It saves a relationship with a kid, knowing that you can stay that close,” Horton said.

Among other things, the Family Room offers things like a fully stocked kitchen, three guest rooms for people to sleep in, toys, snacks, and a general living space. While all of that is obviously an incredible help for any families making use of the service, both Horton and Pass emphasized the social aspect is an incredible benefit.

“There’s a space in our hospital, like 20 to 30 metres from your door where someone can understand your language. That’s a big deal,” Horton said.

“It’s just an incredible service for families because the most horrible thing has happened. Whether it’s ‘just’ an arm break, an injury, an illness, it’s really stressful for a family. So for them to be able to have the support of volunteers and staff, and the other families that are in the same neighborhood as well, they can support one another,” Pass said.

In Horton’s case, he explained his son’s surgery was pre-planned, so he was prepared for both the trip to Vancouver and the stay in the Ronald McDonald House. However, he says he knows there are many families who are there in emergency situations, or in challenging times where your mind may be occupied, and in cases like this he believes the Ronald McDonald House really shines in supporting families.

“Your initial stays, you use the bed, and then you get hungry and you find out there’s food, and your clothes are dirty and you find out there’s laundry. The longer you’re there, the more layers of the onion you realize that they’ve put together. There’s so much intention that they put into the space. There’s so much care and compassion and grace that they build into the space,” Horton said.

With the opening of the UHNBC Family Room, this is now the northern-most Ronald McDonald House Family Room in the province.