International news

Nepal

We’re pleased to report that there will be a visit to Nepal to assess how CLEFT might support local cleft teams. David Sainsbury, CLEFT trustee, will be flying to the country in early May and a local film maker will record the visit to Kathmandu. We are delighted to employ someone who lives in the city and who will be able to give a more rounded and perhaps personal view of how CLEFT might benefit those living with a cleft. This fits into CLEFT’s ethos of working with the local community in all aspects of a project.

Fundraising news

April gave us a ‘star’ fundraiser! Izzy, whose sister was born with a cleft lip and palate, made 78 candles which she sold in aid of CLEFT. Her Homely Candles for CLEFT raised an impressive £668.51 for the charity.

Izzy tells us that her school project taught her many skills. She collected an assortment of jars from friends and neighbours and learned how to make candles with the help of her dad. She then had to find a venue from which to sell them and this involved locating a spot at the Warminster market for which she also had to organise insurance.

Congratulations to Izzy for this amazing venture that showed initiative and dedication!

Forthcoming events

Chamber Concert

A professional chamber concert is being held at All Saints Church, 63 Church Street, Isleworth, London TW7 6BE on Sunday 29^th May at 3 pm. One of our trustees, Kaye Knowles (professional name Kaye Barker) was a professional violinist and is taking part in the concert. She tells us she’s enjoying practising hard for the event and to meeting up with members of the professional group, the Bridge Quartet, of which Kaye was once a member.

The programme will consist of Percy Grainger’s Molly on the Shore for String Quartet, Dvorak’s ‘American’ String Quartet and Elgar’s Piano Quintet. The concert will be followed by refreshments. Tickets are available to book from the CLEFT website and cost £15 each which includes a glass of wine or soft drink after the concert. The church is situated on the banks of the Thames and opposite a pub. Why not combine the concert with a Sunday lunch and walk along the towpath? We look forward to seeing you there!

Black tie dinner

A Black-Tie dinner has been booked for 21^st October at a central London venue. Save the date so that when tickets come on sale you do not miss out as numbers are limited. This will be a chance to meet others involved in the charity and to hear the latest news about CLEFT. Watch this space for further details.

CLEFT's 15th birthday

The 15^th anniversary of the founding of CLEFT is in May and our Fundraising Committee and Student Section are organising events to commemorate CLEFT’s birthday. The Student Section has 14 different teams throughout the country and each team will be raising money and raising the profile of our wonderful charity! CLEFT began in 2007 as an unincorporated charity linked to the North Thames Cleft Centre. It became national as a new charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) on 21^st July 2021 - another anniversary.