Hello Parents/Carers,

To celebrate Cleft awareness week we will be hosting a Bake Sale Tuesday 19th March to try and raise money/awareness for CLAPA so they can support families like mine for years to come..

CLAPA is the UK's cleft lip and palate support charity- from the moment of diagnosis they are there with reassurance, information, and a very welcoming community.

They make sure no one affected by cleft in the UK goes through their journey alone. This includes free services for parents/carers/Grandparents/children- counselling, baby babble sessions with speech therapists, makaton courses, Q&A surgery appointments and so much more! Truly life changing services.

One in 700 babies is born with a cleft; that's three every day in the UK. Already, they face a 20-year treatment pathway, with many having their first surgery at just three months old.

We are proud that our daughter Jemima is one in 700!

"What causes cleft lip and palate?

If you have a child with a cleft, it is very unlikely to be because of something you did or did not do.

No one knows exactly what causes a cleft. Research tells us it's often caused by a combination of different genetic and environmental factors." -Always search CLAPA for more information regarding cleft! Head to CLAPA.com/CleftAware to learn more.

Our daughter surprised us with a complete isolated cleft of the hard and soft palate (a gap in the roof of her mouth). We were clueless at what this meant and unfortunately not enough information and training is out there for hospitals. Thankfully a specialist from Manchester Children's hospital came to us and pointed us in the direction of CLAPA. The support was immense and helped us to quickly become 'experts' at the road ahead.

CLAPA provided us with a (free) feeding starter kit of her special bottles, they are the only place where we can get them. Without them our daughter would not be able to feed.

A cleft isn't just cosmetic, and there's no 'quick fix' that 'heals' naturally. Jemima had her Palate surgery last year at 11 months, she will be having another surgery later on this year to help lengthen and tighten her palate.

Working alongside Speech & Language therapists, her specialist cleft nurse, surgeon, dentist and audiologists Jemima has a lot of routinely appointments.

Cleft has an impact on her whole life.

Jemima truly is the happiest girl who takes it all in her stride, recently she has been fitted for hearing aids to support her speech! We are so proud of our her and so proud to be part of the cleft community!

For the awareness week we would really appreciate any donations so they can continue to reach hundreds of families and adults in need each year.

Thank you for reading,

Jade

CLAPA receive no NHS or government funding and so rely on donations to continue their vital work.