Soft Play’s Isaac Holman to run charity ultramarathon after loss of baby: “I want to raise enough money to make a difference”

WARNING: This article contains discussion of child loss and traumatic birth

Soft Play’s Isaac Holman has announced that he will be running an ultramarathon for charity following the loss of his and his wife’s baby.

The drummer and singer recalled the tragic news with a post on Instagram today (January 9) sharing that he and his wife lost their unborn baby at the end of last year due to a “major heart defect”.

Sharing a series of photographs, Holman told fans that he will be running a 57-mile ultramarathon from Glasgow to Edinburgh later this year for the charity Abigail’s Footsteps, and explained what he and his partner have been through in recent months.

“At the end of last year, my wife and I said goodbye to our little girl at 21-weeks into our pregnancy,” he began. “We found out after a routine 20-week scan that she had a major heart defect. The treatment necessary to attempt to save her life would be multiple open heart surgeries starting at a few days old. She would be in hospital, sedated and isolated for most of her early life and even if she were to survive this, the rest of her life would have been short and involved much suffering.”

“There were also indications that she had a growth restriction meaning her condition would likely be inoperable due to her being too small,” he continued. “We felt there were no positive outcomes for our daughter and decided to end the pregnancy. The difficulty to come to this decision when our daughter was so wanted could not be underestimated. We thought this would be the hardest part of the process.”

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In the post, Holman went on to describe the traumatic experience he and his partner went through when in hospital, describing it as “unimaginably horrific”.

“A few days after we came to this decision, we went to our local hospital for a medically induced miscarriage. The experience was extremely traumatic and not what we were expecting, due to lack of care and facilities,” he said. “My wife was in labour for 12-and-a-half hours, half of which she was in more pain than I’ve ever seen anyone in. After a long and unimaginably horrific night, she delivered our baby herself.”

“There was an obvious lack of knowledge, understanding and empathy from the hospital staff during the birth. They were completely out of their depth and there were points where it was neglectful and dangerous.”

He continued: “While we should be grieving the loss of our daughter Lila, we are instead dealing with PTSD due to the lack of care that we received. The mistakes that were made by staff simply cannot continue to happen. Losing a child is hard enough.”

Concluding, Holman explained that the ultramarathon will take place in October, and the funds raised will go to the Abigail’s Footsteps charity, which “provides bereavement training to midwives and healthcare professionals, facilities such as cold cots and bereavement suites and specialist therapy and care for bereaved parents.”

“I want to raise enough money to make a difference and prevent other parents from having to experience unnecessary trauma during the worst time of their lives,” he added. “Please share and donate if you can.”

At time of writing, 100 people have donated to the JustGiving page set up by Holman, and over £1,800 has been raised for the charity. Visit here to find out more and to donate. Visit here for NHS information and advice on baby loss.

Soft Play shared their latest record ‘Heavy Jelly’, their highest-charting album to date, last July. It marked the first record from the UK punk rock duo since changing their name from Slaves.

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