Yul Kahn-Pascual

I love playing and watching sport, and spend most of my free time on a court either playing tennis, rackets or fives.

I first joined CLEFT in 2017 as a student ambassador to raise awareness about some of the challenges faced in developing countries. At the same time, I was completing my BSc project which investigated the global disparity in access to safe cleft surgery. Children born with a cleft in resource-limited countries often receive surgery much later than in the UK, if at all, and have extremely limited access to other important aspects of treatment, such as speech and language therapy, or even post-surgery follow ups.

During my BSc research project, I came across CLEFT’s overseas contributions in resource-limited countries and admired their commitment to providing a more sustainable solution to the disparity in both access, quality and follow up of surgery, as well as the way they uphold the multidisciplinary team approach, which we are fortunate to have in the UK. This ensures functional aspects such as speech and feeding are also addressed. 

What makes CLEFT unique to me is how it sets high goals for cleft care standards overseas by reducing the reliance on just visiting surgeons, and contributing to prospect of improved cleft care for these regions in the future.

I am passionate about CLEFT's commitment to expanding the evidence base around treatment through research, and its effort to bridge the gap between UK and overseas in order to begin building more comprehensive cleft care access for the future. 

If you would like to listen to a short video of Yul explaining why he became a trustee, please click here.