"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world" Anne Frank
My husband smiled at me
A gorgeous perfect little boy
Was all that we could see
But when the doctor did her rounds
And checked our baby boy
The news she had to tell us
Brought dread where there was joy
She'd found a hole inside his mouth
A cleft palate was what she said
From then I never heard a word
Just questions in my head
Was all of this because of me?
My god what had I done
Was I the only one to blame
I'd done this to our son!
From Addenbrookes came a lady
Susan Burton was her name
She talked and talked for hours
And said there was no blame
She drew us basic pictures
Of how a cleft was here
She taught us how to feed our son
She took away our fear
She said when he was older
An operation is what he'd have
To sew up all the muscles
But till then he just needs love
So when our son was 9 months
To Addenbrookes we went
The staff had kept us well informed
We knew what this all meant
Mr Hall came down to see us
We'd met him once before
He said he'd take care of our boy
We couldn't have asked for more
We kissed and held him tight
The nurse gave us a pager
Said he would be alright
The op took four whole hours
To us it seemed much more
We willed the nurse to bleep us
As we paced outside the door
And then at last it bleeped for us
The waiting was all over
The op had been successful
And now he would recover
We held him tight to calm him down
The nurses helped his pain
They took him up onto the ward
And helped him once again
Each day our son got better
The staff we couldn't fault
They answered all our questions
And relief to us they brought
And when our son was well enough
They said that he could go
To bring him home was wonderful
The relief you'll never know
We took him for his post op check
He passed to our delight
Cos now we finally saw an end
At last our babes alright
So we'd like to say a big thank you
To the cleft team and Mr Hall
And all the staff that cared for him
At Addenbrookes Hospital
BEAUTIFUL POEM BY EMMA GORDON
THE SCHOOL BULLY
She has a poisonous side
She is a devil in disguise, she’s full of surprise
When she looks at you, you feel like she’s looking at your heart
It sends sparks down my spine, in and out like some kind of vine
She stares at you a long time, a horrid, glowing glare
You dare stare back and she’ll give you an evil look
And walk off just like that
People say she’s mad, some people say she’s sad
Some people say a witch, others may say she’s a snitch
But I say she’s an ordinary girl, who just has hate to the world
She’s not mad, she’s not sad
She’s not a witch, she’s not a snitch
She’s just like one of us, only someone who likes to push
I think if you sat down and spoke to her
She’ll feel a bit closer and more uplifted
She has so much more than her poisonous side
But like I said, she’s full of surprise
Poem by Emma Gordon, aged 14, from Peterborough
November 2008. Emma won a poetry competition for
another poem she wrote which was across all schools in Peterborough
Continuing from ‘Fundraising’ page by Molly Tuck .... I wrote a letter to my headteacher Mr Wales at Rackham Primary School in Witchford asking if we could have a non-uniform day at school to raise money for CLAPA. It was very exciting when I got a letter to say that we could do it. Mr Wales asked if somebody could come to the school and tell us about CLAPA.
On Thursday 2 April, Mary Newbold and my mum Carole Tuck came to my school and did an assembly to tell everyone about CLAPA. They told us how CLAPA helps parents, new babies and children. They told us what a cleft was and how it is fixed by the doctors at Addenbrookes. They had photographs of some famous people born with clefts and we all guessed who they were, there was Tutankahmun, Carmit from the Pussy Cat Dolls, Footballer Peter Beardsly and actor Mark Hamill who was Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. We also watched a DVD of the Cambridge Summer 2007 party. Everyone liked seeing the stromtroopers and batman. It was funny seeing children pretend to operate on the surgeon Mr Per Hall and everyone liked seeing some of the children introduced at the end of the DVD. Me and Molly was on that bit.
On Friday 3 April we all went into school in non-uniform. Mr Wales asked everyone to make a donation to CLAPA in return for not wearing their school uniform. I gave CLAPA wristbands to all the people in my class that CLAPA Cambridge gave to us. Everybody really liked them and wore them all day. I don’t know how much money the school raised yet, but when they have finished counting I will let everybody know.
