Patricia Rorison, a member of the CLEFT International Steering Committee, was a Guest Speaker at the conference sharing her experience about performing cleft surgeries in Bangladesh and her involvement with the CLEFT charity. Ms Rorison is one of the plastic surgical cleft surgeons in the North Thames cleft team based at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the St Andrews Centre, Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford.

Click here to read Ms Rorison's bio.

Throughout the day she lead a cleft lip reconstruction wet lab workshop, which is rarely seen in plastic surgery conferences. This workshop used microfoam tape to mimic how cleft lip surgery can be practiced in a simple way, talking about the muscle contraction and ways of considering skin deficiency involved. 

Gozde Gultekin, BLAPRAS Conference Lead, and Daniella Reyes, BLAPRAS co-president, are both student ambassadors for CLEFT and were instrumental in CLEFT’s involvement in this upcoming event. They also kindly arranged to contribute £2 from each ticket sale to support the vital work of CLEFT.