The story behind it all...

On Christmas day 2020 my Husband Adam and I found out we were pregnant with our third child. Wow! After a year of strict COVID-19 lockdown (with two children under 4 years old) to allow us to protect and care for my Mum as she deteriorated with Frontotemporal Dementia, this was a lovely bit of news we needed!! A few months and two scans later, we were thrilled to hear we were having a healthy baby girl and her two brothers were delighted too!

Fast forward to the week before giving birth, we had made the (reluctant) decision to settle Mum into a care home as her care requirements had substantially increased and my ability to support was about to reduce for a period with the arrival of my daughter. For that week I was at the care home everyday from 8am to 8pm. The care home staff were in a constant state of alert watching me, 39 weeks pregnant, waddling around the home arranging Mum’s room and trying to ensure she was as settled as possible.

On August 24th 2021 as I walked into St Mary's hospital to give birth via a planned C-section, a sense of relief came over me. I had made it!! I had carried my daughter to full term whilst keeping Mum safe and well. The section went smoothly and by 10.30am that morning I had my beautiful baby girl Milly Nina in my arms.

From the very first feeding attempt in recovery, I knew something wasn't quite right and for the next six hours I was persistent in asking for help. Finally a midwife noticed an abnormality in Milly's mouth and she was taken away for an assessment. At this point I was utterly broken, exhausted and terrified. The wait was agonising and I was overcome by thoughts of not being able to take any more. How could I care for Mum and a baby with extra needs, and what impact would it have on my boys?! I just wanted to call Mum and hear her tell me that everything would be OK, but that just wasn’t something she was able to do by this point. At that moment I desperately missed her, and wished I could feel the safety of knowing together, Mum, Dad, Adam and I could conquer anything.

Milly was diagnosed with a cleft palate affecting both the soft and hard palate. Unfortunately, this cannot be picked up on scans but should have been identified straight after birth during the midwife check. We were in total shock and full of questions. Thankfully, despite it now being 7pm, the specialist Cleft Lip and Palate (CLAPA) nurse came out of hours to see us in hospital. She spent time answering our questions, providing us with reassurance and training us in how to best care for and feed Milly. Due to Milly's cleft she couldn't create the seal to suck and feed so we were provided with specialist bottles that allowed her to get the milk she must have been desperate for. The CLAPA team continued the close support once at home, through her surgery and beyond.

Milly had her cleft palate repair surgery in September 2022 and is doing really well. She has hearing tests every 3 months, speech and language therapy and has ongoing follow up sessions with the specialist multidisciplinary CLAPA team. She is doing incredibly well thanks to her determination and the great support she's receiving.

In some third world countries the facilities are not available for children born with a cleft lip and / or palate to have the corrective surgery, let alone the aftercare, that Milly has had meaning they're unable to eat, drink or develop their communication properly. The Northern Cleft Foundation helps to provide life changing surgery to children in such third world countries born with a cleft lip and / or palate.

The Northern Cleft Foundation

Made up of a specialist team of surgeons, anesthetists, cleft speech therapists and nurses, the team give up their own free time to provide children with a cleft lip and / or palate with the help they deserve, even providing training to the hospitals to enable them to continue such surgeries in the future.

In March 2023, The Northern Cleft Foundation travelled to Vietnam and performed 53 corrective cleft surgeries in five days on children and babies. They provided training to the doctors, nurses and midwives of Hanoi University Hospital with the aim of supporting them to develop a cleft service like the one that has supported Milly. The cost of the trip was £30,000 pounds excluding the Northern Cleft Foundation Team’s accommodation and food costs which they funded themselves.

After the care and consideration we have received as a family and watching Milly thriving after her surgery, it is so important to me to support this cause and give other children access to these wonderful surgeons. The team have planned their next project for March 2024 and it would mean the world to help towards the cost of this.