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KALLUM Gibson is on the floor of the cosy lounge room, the skyscraper he’s building from coloured plastic blocks teetering precariously close to collapse.
Nearby, his newborn sister Sienna-Grace — just 18 weeks old — is peacefully sleeping in her pram, fingers curled up into tight little fists.
With the sunlight streaming through the windows, three-year-old Kallum’s happy chatter, and mum Jade Gibson busy mixing formula in baby bottles, it might be a fairly typical scene in any Wodonga family home.
Except this family is not at home.
Mrs Gibson and her children are at the Ronald McDonald Family Room attached to the Wodonga hospital maternity ward.
The family room, which is an offshoot of the Ronald McDonald House charities, will benefit from the McHappy Day fund-raiser tomorrow.
The room has been a saving grace for Mrs Gibson during both of her pregnancies.
A series of complications with Kallum meant he had to be induced at 35 weeks, and was in the hospital’s nursery for 21 days.
Things unfortunately didn’t get much easier for mum the second time round — Sienna-Grace too had to be induced at 35 weeks and spent about a fortnight in the hospital before she could go home.
“But the family room made it easier,” Mrs Gibson said.
“When you’re at hospital all day every day, it’s good to have somewhere else to go, just to destress, or to take Kallum and have some rest in between.
“I can’t put any words to how valuable it is.”
Mrs Gibson also took part in a mother’s group run by the family room, which was a good way to meet other parents in her situation and exchange experiences and coping mechanisms.
Ronald McDonald Family Room program co-ordinator Maureen Nicholls said the room differed to Ronald McDonald houses in that it was for local people to use to come and go as they need when their children are in hospital.
“It can be really stressful to have a child in hospital for a long time, so we have a team of volunteers who chat with the parents and help out,” she said.
“We just try to make it have a really homely feel.”
Ms Nicholls and Mrs Gibson both encouraged people to get out and support McHappy Day.
“I’d have been lost without this ... the service is just so under-rated,” Mrs Gibson said.