Thanks for visiting my fundraising page.
Three years ago my wife claire and i had our second son, frankie. During Claire's twenty week scan we were told that our unborn baby would have a cleft lip and palate. I must say this was a very hard time for us as we assumed we would not incur any problems with our second pregnancy as our first was normal. after numerous scans and tests it was confirmed that frankie would be born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate, for those of you that have not heard of this term before it meant that frankie would be born with a large gap in his lip, gum and palate.
Fortunately the NHS were excellent and supported us from day one. We were put in touch with a specialist Cleft lip and palate team (CLAPA) who were able to support us through each and every stage of the process. When frankie was born he was unable to suck from a normal bottle and we had to feed him by a special squeezy bottle that we would squeeze to his reflex enabling him to drink the milk that a baby needs.
At three months old frankie went through major facial reconstructiin to close the wide gap in his lip and nose. As you can imagine this was a very tough and trying time and we had a lot of tears and worry. Once recovered from this operation frankie then had another major operation at the age of six months old. This operation was to close the large gap that ran from the front of his palate to the back of his palate. Sadly this operation was unsucessful and frankie had to have further major surgery on his palate in june 2008.
Frankie also needs another major operation when he is nine years old. He has glue ear and is his first set of grommits in stitue. Frankie has had intensive speech therapy as speech is often a problem with cleft babies and is now on the road to recovery.
It's not all doom and gloom! Frankie is a little cracker, he's as tough as old boots and has always bounced back after surgery. Fortunately frankie was so young he will not remember all that he has been through. However for us it is a different story and we will never forget all the worry and upset we have been through with frankie.
I want to raise money to help sucure CLAPA'S continued operation. I know that CLAPA helps people all of the time. You don't realise these charities are out there until you need them. Claire and I may experience this condition if we have more children and Frankie also has a greater risk of it reoccuring in his children. CLAPA have helped my family, and now I want to give something back.
You can visit CLAPA'S website at www.clapa.com
Check out pictures of Frankie in the gallery at http://www.clapa.com/surgery_photos.php?id=21&Submit.x=10&Submit.y=12
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