Mark Peter Holt

Mark Peter Holt died on Saturday June 9th at the Vancouver General Hospital where he had been in the intensive care unit since Saturday May 20th. He had fallen from the 4th floor of an apartment building and did not survive the serious brain and spinal injuries which he had sustained.

Mark was born in Portsmouth, England on the 24th March, 1987 and emigrated with his parents Janet and Peter Holt and elder brother, John, to Canada on September 7th, 1987. He spent his first year in Saint John, New Brunswick before moving with his family to the small lakeside community of Hudson, Quebec. The early childhood years that Mark described as “so very happy” were spent in Hudson and later, Ottawa, where the family moved in 1993. He became a big brother to Chris, who was born in 1990, and the family moved again to White Rock in British Columbia in the late summer of 1997.

Mark attended Ray Shepherd Elementary school and graduated from Semiahmoo High School in June 2005, playing both basketball and rugby for the school. An enthusiastic and committed athlete, he joined Bayside mini rugby as a chubby 10 year old and continued to play for the club until last year. He loved the camaraderie of the Bayside Rugby Club and delighted in the close friendships that he made there. He remained an avid supporter and advocate of rugby, his most loved sport, though for a while jiu-jitsu became a passion that only his over enthusiastic wrestling technique, and refusal to give in, had curtailed due to a serious neck injury.

Mark loved all things physical and certainly trained, honed, and taxed his body to the maximum, but he was also a sweetly kind-hearted, empathetic, intellectually astute and irritatingly argumentative young man. Politics and History were his dual passions and he graduated from the University of Victoria with a BA in History in 2010.

Determined to pay off his student loans and drawn to the physical adventure of working in an outdoor environment, Mark went to work on the oil rigs in Alberta in the fall of 2010. He achieved what he set out to do despite considerable hardship and many personal challenges.

Returning to BC after the downturn in the oil industry he was given the opportunity to work for ServiceMaster and he was very appreciative of the mentorship and support that he gained from the owners Paul and David Benoit. From this springboard he eventually set up his own company for residential cleaning and maintenance services, but remained closely connected to ServiceMaster, fulfilling many contracts for them.

Mark was an adventurer and he enjoyed travel with his family and friends: memorable holidays were spent in Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Spain, Latvia, Thailand and, most recently, Australia where he met the Prime Minister of New Zealand! He had also travelled to Botswana and there is no doubt that sighting a pride of lions, and later an obstinate elephant in the middle of the road, were travel highlights.

Mark will always be our much-loved brother and son, and we will carry him forever in our hearts. Left behind with wonderful memories are parents Jan & Peter Holt, brothers John and Chris, and many more family, and dear friends.

Vancouver General Hospital Foundation

Donations to the Vancouver General Hospital Foundation will reflect our great respect for the care and support Mark received for the three weeks he spent in the VGH ICU. The professionalism, understanding and compassion that we witnessed cannot be understated. We do not know how we could have endured had we not seen the wonderful level of care he was provided.

The VGH Foundation have agreed to allow donations in memory of Mark to be directed specifically to support families of ICU patients who must travel to Vancouver from elsewhere in BC. Currently between 30-40% of the ICU patient population is from outside Vancouver, which represents over 500 people per year.

Donations to VGH can be made by following the link below: http://vghfoundation.ca/markholt2018

Semiahmoo House Society

As many of you will know our family has long been a supporter of the valuable work that Semiahmoo House Society do for those with developmental disabilities in Surrey and beyond. Jan has been a board member for a number of years and Mark was always particularly supportive and proud of his mother's endeavours.

Local organizations are often overshadowed by the larger well funded campaigns of nationwide or provincial charities. We would therefore like to commend Semiahmoo House Society to you as an excellent and worthy local organization.

Donations to Semiahmoo House Society may be made by following the link below: http://www.semi-house-society.com/personal-donations.html