Fundraiser in Memory of Our Daughter, Isadorah Booth

29/05/24 TRIGGER WARNING: DISCUSSION OF BABY LOSS!!

Hello! We are Sam and Natalie and we both are hoping to fundraise in memory of our beautiful angel daughter and first born, Isadorah Elizabeth Catherine Booth, who was sadly born sleeping last month, April 2024.

The last month has been the worst time of our lives and we have gone through things no parent or person should ever experience. Recently, we had to sadly say goodbye to our baby girl forever, plan a funeral, and lay our gorgeous baby girl to rest. As we try to navigate our 'new lives' as parents without our baby here physically with us, we want to do everything in our power that we can to honour our baby Isadorah, but also support the causes that supported us (and continue to support us) through this heart-breaking time.

On Saturday 20th July 2024, we, along with some of our incredible family and friends, will be walking a marathon on the Leeds-Liverpool canal. We are walking this marathon not only in memory of our baby girl, but to raise awareness (as well as raise awareness of baby loss since it happens to 1 in 4 of us and help break the stigma around it) and money for the special charities that have supported us over the last month and a bit. We agree that without these charities, we don’t think we would have got through any of this without them and will be forever in their debt. We would like to especially highlight Abigail’s Footsteps charity but not forgetting and shout out the other charities who have also helped us (James Cook Maternity Bereavement Fund (South Tee’s Hospital Charity), 4Louis, Petal’s, Leo’s Antenatal, and Aching Arms). More about these charities will follow after we talk about Abigail’s.

Abigail’s Footsteps

Up until the end of April 2024, we had never heard of Abigail's Footsteps (https://www.abigailsfootsteps.co.uk/professionals/cold-cots-for-hospitals/), or even a 'cooling cot'. Sadly, but fortunately, this changed, and for a whole 7 days, Isadorah got to stay in a cooling cot in our hospital which allowed us to spend precious quality time with her (which we will treasure forever and always be so grateful to Abi's that we got this experience).

If you haven't heard of Abigail's, they are an incredible baby loss charity providing support for bereaved families and bereavement training for healthcare professionals. One of their greatest contributions has been the creation and funding of the Abi cooling cot (a refrigerated unit) which allowed us as well as other parents past and present valuable time to spend with our/their baby before saying goodbye.

The cooling cot helped us to bond with our baby (again as well as other parents and their babies) and aided our/their grieving process. Abi's have delivered cots to over 100 hospitals and hospices in the UK and Ireland so far. It is their mission to encourage all bereavement suites in hospitals to have at least two cooling cots. Abigail's delivered 57 cooling cots in 2021, 28 cots in 2022 and 46 cots in 2023. We would love your help to add to this number in 2024!

Abigail's ask donors to raise a total of £2,800 to provide an Abi cooling cot to a workplace in need. The full amount raised will cover the cot manufacturing, courier costs, admin and a memory plaque for the cot in Isadorah's name. This is why we are fundraising for a minimum of £2,800 for a UK hospital/bereavement suite, hospice, neonatal unit or funeral directors, just like another family did for us. *We have had confirmation now from James Cook Hospital (that Isadorah was born in), neonatal unit sadly don’t currently have a cold cot, so this cot will be officially going to this department.* We could now never imagine going through this without the Abi's cooling cot that Isadorah lay in and want to make sure no other parents in the future need to go through this without one too. Admittedly, we are so sorry to any parent who has ever had to go through this without one (our hearts go out to you) but we want to change this for the future and beyond.

We are sure with the help of everyone that we will be able to do this! We are hoping that any additional funds raised will go to the following charities:

The James Cook Hospital Bereavement Maternity Ward Fund (South Tees Hospital Charity)

We are extremely grateful that we stayed in a special soundproof bereavement room away from the main central delivery ward called ‘Dottie’s Room’ (which was created purely through public donations and fundraisers) with Isadorah which had things like food, drinks, towels, toiletries, netflix, a fan etc. Prior to James Cook having this room, families had to go through the heart break of loosing a baby while sadly doing this on the main central delivery ward with families having healthy pregnancies and births. We couldn’t ever imagine this (we are so sorry if you have had to experience this) and feel so incredibly lucky that this special room now exists thanks to Dottie’s special family. We also want to highlight that during our time at James Cook, the love, care, and respect we received from every single member of staff who looked after us 3 was indescribable. We will never forget about the amazing staff at this hospital! You can find out more here: https://www.southtees.nhs.uk/news/maternity-bereavement-suite-supports-james-cook-families/, https://www.southtees.nhs.uk/charity/

4Louis

4Louis is a Child, Pregnancy and Baby Loss Charity. We were kindly gifted with a memory box (these boxes are solely based on donations from other families who have experience baby loss) which included hand prints, clay prints, twin teddies, candles, key rings, books, blankets, knitted hearts and a birth certificate). This box means the absolute world to us and we would now be completely lost without it. Find more about this here: https://4louis.co.uk/

Leo’s Antenatal

Leo’s Antenatal is a Baby Loss and Antenatal Counselling Charity in the Northeast offering free counselling/bereavement support. You find out more here: https://leosneonatal.org/

Petal’s

Petal’s is a UK Baby Loss Counselling Charity offering free counselling. You can find out more here: https://www.petalscharity.org/

Aching Arms

Aching Arms is a Pregnancy and Baby Loss Charity. This charity supplied us with a teddy bear as no parent should leave the hospital empty handed. Like our memory box, we would be lost without this bear. Additionally, also like our box, these bears are also sadly donated from bereaved families. Find out more here: https://www.achingarms.co.uk/

Thank you (from the bottom of our hearts) for reading and your support!

Natalie, Sam, and on behalf of our daughter, Isadorah x

*image of cold cot from the charity Abigail’s Footsteps that Isadorah lay in during our time in hospital in the special charity funded bereavement room*

*image of Isadorah’s memory box gifted from the charity 4Louis*

*image of a teddy that we were gifted from the charity Aching Arms*