The £380,000 grade II listed building at Powis Villas has been converted with the help of a £140,000 grant from fast-food giant McDonald's.

From next week, it will house up to eight families of youngsters staying at the nearby Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital at any one time.

The Argus has been given a glimpse of the three-storey house to coincide with its official handover to Brighton Health Care NHS Trust.

Among its main features are a spacious lounge and dining room, a back garden, two kitchens, three toilets and bathrooms, and a basement laundry and smoking area.

It has also been fully-fitted, with equipment ranging from washing machines, cookers, sofas and beds to a TV and video recorder, saucepans and cutlery.

Lee Soden, the trust's director of facilities, says the new accommodation, which has been completed ahead of schedule, will vastly improve parent stays at the hospital.

He said: "We only started talking about a McDonald's house last September and it's already been completed. They say this is the fastest they've ever put one of these together from start to finish.

"The back garden was in a real state a few days ago, so the fact it looks so good now is a real testament to the hard work of the contracted workers.

"They did all this in just four days, so it was a bit like that TV garden makeover programme."

He added: "The bedrooms are all of a very high standard of comfort, so we are really hoping people will respect that and treat them well.

"Because of the way they've been arranged with their beds and furniture we can easily mix and match them, depending on the exact sizes of families and their number of children.

"One of the added bonuses of the rooms is that they will all be fitted with internal phones connected directly to the hospital, so if a child was ill we could call his or her family straight away."

It took five weeks to convert the McDonald house from scratch, including painting its rooms sunshine yellow and fitting its pastel carpets and curtains.

The building previously contained accommodation for ten on-call doctors and other members of staff, whose rooms have now been moved to a neighbouring trust property.

Melvin Lynch, head of Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, said: "We are delighted to make this major contribution in Sussex and to be able to work closely with Brighton Health Care NHS Trust and the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital.

"The project enables us to further our work in helping children and their families by providing a home away from home for those who need to stay close to their sick children."

The first ever Ronald McDonald House in the UK was opened at Guy's Hospital, London, in 1990.

Two others followed, in Liverpool and Glasgow, and there are now plans for more to be funded through the Ronald McDonald Children's Charities Big Smile Appeal.

The Brighton house will remain at Powis Villas until the Royal Alexandra hospital is eventually moved to the Royal Sussex County Hospital site, at Eastern Road, within the next few years.

The first families will begin arriving at the house next Thursday.

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