Moree couple call for more funding for Dubbo's Macquarie Home Stay

"Some people get millions in money handed over to them but they won't tip a million for places like this," Ida, a retired nurse, said.

For privacy reasons, the couple requested their full names not be used. Ida's husband John, a retired truck driver and house painter, had a heart attack a few years ago and his life was saved by a doctor at Dubbo Base Hospital.

Since then, Ida, 73, has been taking John, also 73, back to Dubbo for his treatment but they couldn't afford the motels' nightly costs from their pension.

"I can speak for this place, they saved my life, too," Ida said of Macquarie Home Stay.

"I was a wreck when I came through this door but they helped me. They showed me how to get to the supermarket, to the shops, to the hospital and I could never forget that."

Ida and John are speaking out to encourage others who had been helped with a place to stay they could afford while their loved ones are facing life-and-death situations.

The couple has been married for over 50 years and had two children and three grandchildren.

Each time Ida is in Dubbo for John's treatment, she carries a bag to collect cans and bottles and cashes them in at the Return-and-Earn depot, and donates it to Macquarie Home Stay.

"That's the most I could do for them and if I see they need milk and bread, I'd leave them in the fridge ... I can only do little things because they deserve it," Ida said.

Ida said she has also written to the former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, the federal MP for Parkes Mark Coulton, and NSW MP for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall to urge them to help Macquarie Homestay and has yet to receive a response.

She has yet to write to the NSW premier Dominic Perrottet but will soon handwrite one after she found he was in Moree inspecting the recent flood that inundated many towns.

"Maybe if Mr Perrottet is putting $10 million into other places, give the other million to this place, they are a big service...if I have millions I'd give them in a heartbeat," she said.

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Macquarie Home Stay's $2.45 million funding under the Building Better Regions Fund to build extra rooms for patients from remote towns has been discontinued in the federal government budget for 2022-2023.

Ida said they read the disappointing news about Macquarie Home Stay and the first thing that comes to their mind is "to make a plea without being nasty, to please help people like us".

"Half of those people who get millions from the government are wasting it, they could spend it on important places like this.

"Everybody had sickness and inconveniences trying to find accommodation and trying to survive, can't work because the child is sick and the wife can't work so we need places like this."

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