Former Nottingham Forest footballer Kris Commons and his fiancée, Lisa Hague, plan to help bereaved families with Sherwood Forest retreat

A former Nottingham Forest star and his partner have set out plans to launch a grief and bereavement retreat to help others who, like them, have a lost child.

Kris Commons and his fiancée, Lisa Hague, will host the retreat in Sherwood Forest this summer — and they want residents from Newark and Sherwood to get involved.

The family, who now live just outside Newark, had a stillborn baby, Lola, 14 years ago and want to help those who had been through similar experiences.

“Kris and I had a stillborn daughter. She was full term and it was our anniversary on February 1,” said Lisa.

“We were in Newark at the time because Kris played for Forest.

“It was a shocking time. We didn’t know of another family who had had a stillborn baby, so it was so new to us all. We didn’t realise that you weren’t guaranteed a private room in the hospital or extra care.”

After Kris moved to Celtic in 2011, Lisa made connections with Scottish stillbirth charity SiMBA, which works with hospitals to furbish family rooms within maternity units to offer families the opportunity to spend precious time with their baby.

Two years later, Lisa established The Lola Commons fund for SiMBA.

The fund sought to redecorate and refurbish hospital rooms and provide vital equipment for them including camera equipment, fold-down beds for partners to stay and cuddle cots with cooled mattresses to allow parents to spend more time with their little one before they have to say goodbye.

“We made it our mission to get private rooms in hospitals and we spend money every year putting family rooms, cuddle cots and bereavement boxes in places,” said Lisa, who is training to become a bereavement and grief coach.

“We have given out of 20,000 memory boxes across the UK, which is amazing to look back at.

“We were in Scotland for nearly ten years and Kris had a successful career there, but now we are back in Newark and we want to build on the foundations we laid in Scotland.

“We understand the difference in grieving for men and women and what the consequences of that are, so we are holding two retreats — with one being specifically for couples.

“A lot of the interest has been from Scotland because that’s where we established our roots but we want to offer this to local people ­— it is on the doorstep for people in Newark.

“Although we are known for the stillbirth side of things, it is there for those who have lost babies and have similar experiences.

“We are holding it for anybody who is grieving.”

The weekend programmes will take place on April 1-3 for individuals and on May 6-8 for couples.

Participants will meet on the respective Fridays and take part in group sessions, before venturing out on different activities over the weekend.

“We have found people who have lost babies are often denied the right to talk about their birthing story because the baby either died at birth or soon after, and that makes people feel uncomfortable, but it is still a huge part of that person’s life, whether the baby survives or not,” said Lisa.

“We want it to be a safe space for people to talk and tell their story.

“We want to be out in nature, and Sherwood Forest helps.

“Kris doesn’t know it yet, but he is going to take the dads out for some cold water therapy while I stay with the mums.”

To find out more or get involved, contact lisa@hagueretreats.co.uk