PEOPLE were able to study new plans at the weekend for a £9m purpose-built house for parents to stay near their sick children in hospital.

Ronald McDonald House Charities revealed plans for a 62-bedroom property to provide “priceless” accommodation for parents with seriously ill children at the Oxford Children’s Hospital, as detailed on the Oxford Mail’s front page on Saturday, The L-shaped block will be built on the John Radcliffe site so parents can be near their children during their stay.

Currently the charity has 17 rooms on the top floor of the children’s hospital that can cater for about 40 people, but the new building will provide 200 more beds for worried and stressed families.

Head of operations at Ronald McDonald House Charities, Anne Ward, said the current facilities were already oversubscribed.

She added: “We could fill the 17 bedrooms twice every night and that’s not taking into account families with babies in newborn intensive care who we have not helped at all.”

The Oxford Mail revealed the plans on Saturday and spoke to parents Andy and Alice Boon from Milton, near Didcot, who stayed at the current Ronald McDonald House on and off for five months when their newborn son needed regular heart surgery.

Archie Boon was born with a congenital heart defect in 2008, and had his first operation at only five days old.

Mr Boon welcomed the plans, saying: “You cannot put a price on that facility. I don’t think we would have coped without it.

“It’s the most amazing charity – an absolute lifesaver.”