Brian Sommerlad, Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Chair of Trustees For over 40 years, I have been involved in operating on babies, children and adults who have been born with cleft lip and/or palate. Expand Although I have now retired from the National Health Service, I continued to operate both in the UK and in many countries abroad. As a plastic surgeon, I have been involved in many aspects of surgical reconstruction. However, I have increasingly focused on the challenge of trying to improve results in surgery for clefts. I have been aware of the lack of good quality data on techniques and outcomes and have tried to make some contributions in these areas. Travelling to many countries has convinced me of the need to try to help in improving care for children born with clefts in resource-poor countries. Most efforts by charities rely on flying in western teams for short visits or paying local surgeons to carry out the operations in private hospitals. Neither of these approaches builds for the future. If these NGOs disappeared, they would have had a negative impact in the long-term. In 2007, with Maddie Holmes (grandmother of a patient) and inspired by John Kettleborough (an ex-patient) we set up the charity CLEFT, with the aim of funding research to be carried out by the North Thames Cleft Team in Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the St Andrew’s Centre, Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, and also to support cleft lip and palate teams in resource-poor countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Egypt and Kurdistan. We have achieved a lot but there is much more to be done – helping to bridge the gaps in knowledge about the causes and treatment of clefts and trying to bridge the gaps between treatment in countries like the UK and countries like Bangladesh. In addition to being the current chairman of CLEFT, I am currently trying to split my time between looking after my own patients, regularly visiting the centres that we support overseas, and also keeping in touch with my own family of five children and currently fourteen grandchildren. It would be better if there were more hours in the day and more days in the year! http://www.sommerlad.co.uk/
Emily Anderson, Clinical Geneticist I first heard about the charity CLEFT through Mr Brian Sommerlad, who operated on my cleft lip and palate when I was a baby. Expand I ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon for CLEFT in 2009 and I subsequently became a trustee. I have been involved in encouraging other young people to support the charity and I have also visited Bangladesh to see the challenges in providing comprehensive cleft care there. Having qualified as a doctor in 2012, I have now chosen to specialise in genetics. My own experiences, as a patient and as a doctor, mean I am particularly keen to support CLEFT’s work, both in research as well as overseas.
Richard Allan I became aware of CLEFT through discussion with Brian Sommerlad and was invited to become a trustee. Expand I am particularly interested in the work that our charity does overseas and have travelled to Bangladesh five times. It has been enormously satisfying to see the comprehensive cleft care centre in Dhaka developing and to get to know the key people involved. Much has been achieved, but there is so much more to do.There is the prospect of establishing other centres along similar lines. Sustainability is of paramount importance and this cannot be achieved overnight. Our charity sets itself long term goals so we need to continually plan ahead. I come from a business background and have wide experience in several industries. I hold a masters degree in business administration and have chaired audit committees in a number of major organizations. Helpful when producing action plans and budgets for our overseas projects.
Marie Pinkstone I am delighted and honoured to be a trustee of CLEFT. CLEFT is a charity that represents my values and commitment to research and treatment for patients and families affected by cleft. Expand My background is Lead Speech and Language Therapist for the North Thames Cleft Service based at St Andrews Hospital in Chelmsford and Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. I have worked in the service following its establishment in 2002 and have been working in the field of cleft lip and palate since 1997. My clinical speciality as enabled me to support CLEFT projects in Uganda, Ghana and in Bangladesh. Through working in new and challenging environments I have seen first hand the positive impact that Cleft brings to the patient journey with every penny raised influencing patient care and research. My focus is to improve all patient experience and clinical outcomes.. a focus that is shared with my fellow board members.
Tracy Morris I am Chair of the Fundraising Committee and CLEFT Trustee. Being married to cleft lip and palate surgeon, Mr Paul Morris, means that daily life is engulfed by everything cleft! Expand Here in the UK we are so very lucky to have such a wonderful NHS that supports families from the first scan through to adult life. The sad fact that parents from less developed countries have very little or no support medically and that their wider family and villagers often ostracise cleft children is heart breaking. My passion for the CLEFT charity has grown as I have become more aware of the amazing work it undertakes worldwide and the positive impact it has on so many lives. The charity touches the lives of less fortunate families through local surgery, training and education; and here in the UK through our funded grassroots research programmes. Reading the stories on our website highlights its effectiveness. I regularly attend the trustee meetings, work closely with our Student Ambassadors and promote the charity at every opportunity, I have run (and walked) the London Parks half marathon 3 times, I have cycled the London Prudential 100 miles cycle ride 3 times and climbed Kilimanjaro in 2019 in aid of CLEFT (read my story here).
Matt Fell I am excited to work with the CLEFT charity team, as part of the UK’s collaborative effort, to help improve cleft care in the UK and overseas. Expand I am excited to work with the CLEFT charity team, as part of the UK’s collaborative effort, to help improve cleft care in the UK and overseas. I am a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery training registrar in the Southwest of England, based in Bristol with my wife and two children. I have been fascinated in cleft lip and palate since being a medical student and have steered my surgical training towards achieving my goal of becoming a cleft surgeon. I have an honorary fellowship position to perform epidemiological cleft research with the Cleft Collective at the University of Bristol. I have been passionate about global health for many years and aim to focus my energy on improving the provision of cleft care for patients and their families living in resource-poor settings. If you would like to listen to Matt examining the problems of inequalities in access to cleft care in lower income countries, please click here.
Bruce Richard Consultant Cleft Surgeon (retired). Expand I lived in in Nepal for 11 years, (1989-1999) where I set up a Plastic Surgery Department for the Government of Nepal, trained 7 Nepalese surgeons in Plastic Surgery, initiated a Randomised controlled trial in Cleft surgery, and investigated the facial nerve in leprosy. My passion was working with Nepalese colleagues to improve outcomes for the people of West Nepal. For the last 19 years, I have been a Consultant Cleft surgeon in Birmingham, developing the cleft service, teaching Plastic surgery, supporting national Cleft Audit, and initiating several cleft clinical research projects. I continue with 2 PhD students that I co-supervise on computer artificial Intelligence projects developing a better cleft aesthetic outcome measure and investigating why some children’s midface does not grow sop well after cleft surgery. The CLEFT International Charity objectives, completely encapsulates my passion for development and sustainability of improved Cleft care in Low and Middle Income Countries by the ethos and methodology stated in the Mission Statement. I would like to help those objectives become more of a reality. If you would like to hear more from Bruce about his experiences of working and living in Nepal, please click here.
Rona Slator, Chair of the Research Steering Committee Retired, and living in the North Yorkshire countryside. Former Consultant Plastic and Cleft Surgeon at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the West Midlands Cleft Lip and Palate Centre. Expand I was a student for a long time. I particularly enjoyed and learned from my research degree the excitement of knowing a small area in great depth and the results of experimental studies. As a medical doctor, initially very early in my postgraduate career, I was inspired by both the cleft surgery of Brian Sommerlad, and by his enthusiasm for auditing outcomes. I have been passionate ever since about knowing more about how well treatments for cleft lip and palate work. I was on the Steering Group of the James Lind Alliance Cleft Lip and Palate Priority Setting Partnership, the first Chair of the Cleft and Craniofacial Anomalies Clinical Studies Group, and President of the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland. During my time as Chair of the CCC CSG we started the Early Careers Researcher Group. I was Clinical Lead of the West Midlands Cleft Service for many years, and Chair of the Cleft Clinical Directors Special Interest Group. I acted as the local PI for international cleft research projects, and encouraged research and audit within the West Midlands Cleft team which has led to a number of collaborations and publications. Funding for cleft research has always been hard to find. I welcome the chance through CLEFT: Bridging the Gap to continue supporting research into improving the lives of children and adults affected by cleft lip and palate. There are so many fascinating areas where we still know so little. If you would like to listen to Rona talking about the value of research to cleft professionals and patients, please click here.
David Sainsbury I am delighted to be a Trustee of CLEFT and am very enthusiastic at the prospect of helping teams around the world to provide the best possible care for individuals with a cleft. Expand I am a Consultant Cleft and Plastic Surgeon in Newcastle upon Tyne – where I live with my wife and three children. I trained in plastic surgery in North-East England and completed Advanced Training in Cleft Lip and Palate (Newcastle, Leeds, Nottingham, Edinburgh) and the Paediatric Plastic Surgery Fellowship (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto). I am a founder member of the Cleft Multidisciplinary Collaborative which produces multicentre, cleft related research across the UK and beyond. I am an Honorary Tutor at the Wound Healing Research Unit, Cardiff University.
Shonnelly Novintan I’m looking forward to taking on this exciting journey with Will to form and shape the CLEFT Trainee Section. Expand I am a junior doctor who graduated from Imperial College London in 2021 and am undertaking my plastics training in Chelmsford. My interest in cleft lip and palate began after my elective at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where I first saw the meticulous nature of cleft surgery. After getting involved with CLEFT, I was enlightened to the global humanitarian impact and this has spurred my passion to develop the Trainee Section alongside Will.