From an afternoon at the Artworker's Guild to a nomination for Charity of the Year, find out all our latest news here.
One of our primary aims is to focus on multidisciplinary and comprehensive care for all children, young people and adults affected by cleft. Speech and Language Therapists play a vital role in the delivery of multidisciplinary care and enable patients to achieve their potential. One of CLEFT's trustees and recently retired speech therapist, Marie Pinkstone, shares why working with colleagues overseas has played such an important part in helping to build a stronger multidisciplinary team. Read more
I am delighted and honoured to have been invited to take up the Chair of CLEFT International steering committee, having joined the expanded charity as a Trustee some 3 years ago. From the outset, I have been impressed by the generously outward facing nature of CLEFT, reflecting a commitment to widening access across the globe to high quality, locally delivered, fully comprehensive care for those with cleft and related conditions. Read more
Chloé Rolland, a cleft specialist orthodontist who is on the CLEFT International Steering Committee is giving a webinar for the Circle of Cleft Professionals this June: 'Cleft Orthodontics: Reducing the Burden of Care' Read more
Back in February 2023, the Great Ormond Street team of clinicians visited the Sheik Hasina National Institute of Burns and Plastic Surgery in Bangladesh with Mirror journalist, Nick Sommerlad and photographer, Rowan Griffiths. Read more
Mr Brian Sommerlad delivered the Maliniac Lecture at the American Society of Plastic Surgery in October 2022. This fascinating lecture looking at 'Reducing Inequality in Surgery Globally’ gives great insight into the inequalities of cleft care around the world. Read more
At the beginning of January 2023, CLEFT proudly joined the Face Equality International Alliance. This is a group of NGO's, charities and support groups working together to promote the campaign for 'face equality'. Read more
Christie’s will be presenting a group of ten contemporary artworks by artists with links to the Indian subcontinent in their Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale in London this October. All proceeds of the sale are being donated to CLEFT. Read more
The 14th International Cleft Congress took place in July 2022 and we were very pleased to support the visit of some of our international colleagues to this important conference. Read more
The new CLEFT student section was six months in planning and eventually launched in September 2021. We celebrate their enthusiasm and contribution here, Read more
Matt Fell and Brian Sommerlad presented at the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland conference in September 2021 on Global Cleft Care. Read more
Our first live event since 2019 took place on the 27th September at Thorndon Park Golf Club in Brentwood, Essex. Read more
David Sainsbury is a Consultant Cleft and Plastic Surgeon in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and a CLEFT trustee and is interviewed by Rachel Lapham, a CLEFT volunteer, who also has a repaired cleft lip and palate. This fascinating podcast gives a really good insight into what cleft provision is like in the UK. Read more
Rosie O'Malley shares her story on video as part of CLEFT's launch week to celebrate its new, expanded CIO status. Read more
Bruce Richard shares his personal experiences of working and living in Nepal. Read more
Marie Pinkstone is the Lead Speech and Language Therapist for the North Thames Cleft Service. Throughout the pandemic, Marie and the speech and language therapy team have continued to provide a service to patients throughout the pandemic, adapting to telehealth. Read more
Yul Kahn Pascual: On becoming a CLEFT trustee Read more
CLEFT trustee, Matt Fell, looks at the problems of inequalities in access to cleft care in lower and middle income countries in a short video. Read more
Our plans to become a national charity have now been approved by the Charity Commission. Although we are still a small charity, we have big ambitions to help even more children born with cleft lip and palate than ever before. Read more
To celebrate the launch of our new and expanded CLEFT charity, we have put together a series of talks that have been recorded by our wonderful trustees and team members, covering a whole range of cleft subjects. Read more
To celebrate CLEFT's 14th birthday this May, we set a challenge to our supporters to do something around the number 14. Read more
CLEFT is supporting National Smile Month, a charity campaign all about championing the benefits of having good oral health and promoting the value of a healthy smile, run by The Oral Health Foundation. Read more
We received some good news from Dhaka last week - the anaesthetic machine is working again and the goods we sent have at last cleared customs! Read more
We are very excited to announce plans to expand both our research and overseas arms. CLEFT Chairman, Brian Sommerlad, explained on live Facebook stream what these changes will be. Read more
CLEFT took part in this year's Big Give Christmas Challenge for the first time. Thanks to our generous donors, we smashed our fundraising target. Read more