Our appeal this Christmas is a little different: we are asking you to donate towards two sets of tools that we need to buy for the surgical team in Bangladesh. We last bought the sets in 2012 and, quite simply, they are wearing out. Each set is made in Sheffield from stainless steel at a cost of £2500 from S Murray & Co. They will be hand delivered by Mr Sommerlad when he makes his first visit there since before Covid.

As Winston Churchill said ‘we make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.’ This is certainly true in the case of the surgical tools. Without this most essential piece of kit, the operations that babies and children with cleft lip and palate need can’t be done.

Dr. Mohammad Rabiul Karim Khan Papon, Associate Professor at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery is pictured above at work.

With a ten year guarantee, these new sets will enable the team to continue their excellent work. They are as essential as the sleigh is to Santa, the hammer to the elves….