Every day in Britain, three children are born with a cleft lip and/or a cleft palate.
Charity No: 1108160
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website by Mary Newbold
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world" Anne Frank
My name is Andrea Tompkins and I am a parent to three children. Jasmine is the eldest at 12 years of age, Cara is now 7 and Toby is about to start school at the age of 4.
I would like to share our experience of Addenbrooke’s hospital and also pass on gratitude to the staff that cared for us when we required it. I was 26 years old and 20 weeks pregnant with my second child when I was told from the results of a scan that my baby would be born with a cleft lip and palate. I had no knowledge at the time of what exactly this would mean. It was very daunting at first but the surgeon Mr Per Hall (the consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon for the cleft team) the cleft nurse and speech therapist were all available to answer the questions that I had.
In May of 2001 Cara was born with a Cleft lip and Palate. During my stay on the Sara ward, when Cara was just a few days old, Mr Hall was kind enough to take time out of his social activities to visit Cara. He took a detour whilst taking his son to a cricket match, proving his dedication to his job. :-)
In August 2001 at the tender age of 3 months. Cara had her first operation and her first stay on Ward D2 of Addenbrooke’s. Mr Per Hall operated on Cara to close the hole in her lip. Cara had her second operation conducted by Per Hall at nine months, this was to close the large hole in her palate. This procedure was very difficult as the hole was extremely large and was close to the front of the palate.
At 18 months Cara underwent the further surgery that was required on the same area of her palate. At all times the surgeons and teams were keen to go out of their way to explain procedure and reassure everyone involved.
The surgeons Mr Hall and Mr Ahmad also attend the CLAPA summer and Christmas parties. They are such good sports and are always included in some kind of focus on the day, whether it’s a pie in the face or being arrested by storm troopers, they are both actively involved in pre and post care. They even agreed to be “knocked out” for the children to operate, a must see on the CLAPA party DVD.
I am forever grateful to all the team for making Cara’s operations and recovery seem very achievable and for making our time in hospital as happy as it could be. I am now actively involved in CLAPA, it’s my way of giving something back and also to help other parents in those stressful early months.
Thank you for your comments below, as it’s always nice to hear from parents, children and their friends about our activities
“Sorry
to contact you via PM but lost your email address and just wanted to say........
It was Molly’s 2nd birthday on Saturday and we had a lot of people around, any way as usual they all had questions about Molly and how she was getting on etc etc. So we did our little spiel about her ops and then got onto the glorious topic of CLAPA....we showed the CLAPA Cambridge summer party DVD to everyone so they could see a little of what happens.
The affect was wonderful!!! Everyone agreed it was a fantastic DVD and a brilliant idea to give to new parents. All the mums were all getting quite emotional watching all the little ones having such a great time and seeing the wonderful work that had been done.
Anyway, they all wanted to pass on their messages to you and CLAPA Cambridge branch to say what a wonderful lot you all are and to keep up the good work!!!! So had to email to say "thank you" again and please pass on our thoughts to the rest of the team - see you on Aug 31
Best wishes
Carole Tuck
From Sarah
“Hi Mary, Just wanted to say that I'd had a look at the website, and I was really impressed with the case stories in the 'cleft journey at Addenbrookes'. It will be great for parents going to that particular hospital. I found the little girl's story really interesting, especially being able to see and hear the X-rays of her speaking. Well done to everyone involved!
Thanks, Sarah “
To read about the cleft journey click on the link. www.medgraphics.cam.ac.uk/cleft/
I would like to share our experience of Addenbrooke’s hospital and also pass on gratitude to the staff that cared for us when we required it. I was 26 years old and 20 weeks pregnant with my second child when I was told from the results of a scan that my baby would be born with a cleft lip and palate. I had no knowledge at the time of what exactly this would mean. It was very daunting at first but the surgeon Mr Per Hall (the consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon for the cleft team) the cleft nurse and speech therapist were all available to answer the questions that I had.
In May of 2001 Cara was born with a Cleft lip and Palate. During my stay on the Sara ward, when Cara was just a few days old, Mr Hall was kind enough to take time out of his social activities to visit Cara. He took a detour whilst taking his son to a cricket match, proving his dedication to his job. :-)
In August 2001 at the tender age of 3 months. Cara had her first operation and her first stay on Ward D2 of Addenbrooke’s. Mr Per Hall operated on Cara to close the hole in her lip. Cara had her second operation conducted by Per Hall at nine months, this was to close the large hole in her palate. This procedure was very difficult as the hole was extremely large and was close to the front of the palate.
At 18 months Cara underwent the further surgery that was required on the same area of her palate. At all times the surgeons and teams were keen to go out of their way to explain procedure and reassure everyone involved.
The surgeons Mr Hall and Mr Ahmad also attend the CLAPA summer and Christmas parties. They are such good sports and are always included in some kind of focus on the day, whether it’s a pie in the face or being arrested by storm troopers, they are both actively involved in pre and post care. They even agreed to be “knocked out” for the children to operate, a must see on the CLAPA party DVD.
I am forever grateful to all the team for making Cara’s operations and recovery seem very achievable and for making our time in hospital as happy as it could be. I am now actively involved in CLAPA, it’s my way of giving something back and also to help other parents in those stressful early months.
Thank you for your comments below, as it’s always nice to hear from parents, children and their friends about our activities
“Sorry
to contact you via PM but lost your email address and just wanted to say........
It was Molly’s 2nd birthday on Saturday and we had a lot of people around, any way as usual they all had questions about Molly and how she was getting on etc etc. So we did our little spiel about her ops and then got onto the glorious topic of CLAPA....we showed the CLAPA Cambridge summer party DVD to everyone so they could see a little of what happens.
The affect was wonderful!!! Everyone agreed it was a fantastic DVD and a brilliant idea to give to new parents. All the mums were all getting quite emotional watching all the little ones having such a great time and seeing the wonderful work that had been done.
Anyway, they all wanted to pass on their messages to you and CLAPA Cambridge branch to say what a wonderful lot you all are and to keep up the good work!!!! So had to email to say "thank you" again and please pass on our thoughts to the rest of the team - see you on Aug 31
Best wishes
Carole Tuck
From Sarah
“Hi Mary, Just wanted to say that I'd had a look at the website, and I was really impressed with the case stories in the 'cleft journey at Addenbrookes'. It will be great for parents going to that particular hospital. I found the little girl's story really interesting, especially being able to see and hear the X-rays of her speaking. Well done to everyone involved!
Thanks, Sarah “
To read about the cleft journey click on the link. www.medgraphics.cam.ac.uk/cleft/
“Just wanted to say we made it to the ‘Winter Wonderland Party from Norwich and thought what a fantastic thing you guys do for the kids, they all looked like they were having a fabulous time, unfortunately we didn’t stay that long as Charlotte has now taken to manovering about the floor so wasn’t enjoying being held, although loved the music. Was so nice to see Mr Hall at a social event. While I was there I got talking to a lovely american lady who had a gorgeous boy of only a month old with the cleft lip ( he was so cute it made me broody lol) and I got to talk to her about the operations we had and she said had really helped talking to me so that’s a positive thing. Well thanks again for all your hard work and hopefully will see you at the next one.
p.s. what great boys there were doing the lucky dip and so polite”
PLEASE SEE A NOTE FROM SATISHA KALRA ABOUT DOCUMENTARY ‘SMILE PINKI’
Dear Melanie
As you may have already heard 'Smile Pinki' got nominated for an Oscar! It's a beautiful documentary capturing the sad and pitiful life of a 6 year old girl born with a cleft lip and palate in eastern UP in one of the poorest parts of India .... and how her life changed through surgery. An Oscar would be a great story and the ensuing publicity will help spread the message to tens of thousands of kids (and parents) who still don't know clefts can be corrected.
Now's the time for all our good friends to come to our support! I attach a short Backgrounder and request you to please circulate it as widely as you can among your friends and acquaintances with a similar request to read it, act upon it and forward it to theirs.
And let's hope we can see Smile Pinki get an Oscar on 22nd February.
Best regards
Satish Kalra, Delhi Smile Train office
p.s. what great boys there were doing the lucky dip and so polite”
PLEASE SEE A NOTE FROM SATISHA KALRA ABOUT DOCUMENTARY ‘SMILE PINKI’
Dear Melanie
As you may have already heard 'Smile Pinki' got nominated for an Oscar! It's a beautiful documentary capturing the sad and pitiful life of a 6 year old girl born with a cleft lip and palate in eastern UP in one of the poorest parts of India .... and how her life changed through surgery. An Oscar would be a great story and the ensuing publicity will help spread the message to tens of thousands of kids (and parents) who still don't know clefts can be corrected.
Now's the time for all our good friends to come to our support! I attach a short Backgrounder and request you to please circulate it as widely as you can among your friends and acquaintances with a similar request to read it, act upon it and forward it to theirs.
And let's hope we can see Smile Pinki get an Oscar on 22nd February.
Best regards
Satish Kalra, Delhi Smile Train office
