Babin family recalls 160 nights at Ronald McDonald House — Mchappy Day
McHappy Day this week will raise money for charities including Ronald McDonald House, and BJ Babin is pointing to the 160 nights his family spent at Ronald McDonald House Ottawa during Brody Babin’s cancer treatment. The Callander family first needed an Ottawa hotel, then found a room at the house within four days of calling.
Babin family in Ottawa
Brody Babin was taken to the North Bay Regional Health Centre with stomach pain in February of 2025, then flown to CHEO in Ottawa after one night in North Bay. The family stayed in an Ottawa hotel for about two and a half weeks while Brody was diagnosed and treatment began.
BJ Babin said the hotel stay would have broken the family financially. He said, “The hotel would give us the ‘compassionate rate’ but that was only for two days. We were trying to run a business (a forklift company) from the hospital.”
He added, “We couldn’t even get (employment) insurance. It was terrible,” before his wife called Ronald McDonald House and the family was placed on a list. Within four days, the house called back and said a room was available.
Ronald McDonald House Ottawa
Ronald McDonald House usually charges families $10 a night, and the Babin family spent 160 nights there while Brody was being treated for Burkitt’s Lymphoma Leukemia stage four. BJ Babin said, “Ronald McDonald House provided our family a safe space to heal and recover while being only steps away from the hospital where our son was receiving medical treatments.”
He said the location let them reach the hospital in minutes when Brody needed immediate care in the middle of the night. “When our son was very sick and required immediate care in the middle of the night, we were able to be at the hospital in minutes.”
Brody Babin treatment
Brody beat leukemia last year, but during this treatment doctors did a laparoscopy for a biopsy and found tumours. BJ Babin said, “They found the tumours, and once they touched them, the tumours ruptured,” and Brody ended up in the ICU on a ventilator after what “should have been a thirty-minute procedure.”
He was intubated for about a week and a half. For the Babin family, McHappy Day is tied to the place that kept them near Brody when every hour mattered, and the fundraiser now sends support to the same kind of housing that carried them through Ottawa.
