Matt’s Story
Welcome to Matt, our new volunteer in our Dad’s Coffee Club. Matt shared his inspiration for volunteering with CLAPA.
“Like most, we found out about Sophie’s suspected cleft at the 20-week anomaly scan, which was a complete surprise. There is no cleft lip or palate history in my or my wife’s family.
At what we called the bonus scan at Oxford at 21 weeks, a unilateral cleft lip was also confirmed with a suspected cleft palate. That’s when our cleft journey started, I guess you could say.
Our cleft nurse at John Radcliffe contacted us the day after and discussed many things with us, including all of the resources and support at CLAPA. We spoke openly and honestly to friends and family about what it meant for her, the operations she would face, and potential timelines.
Sophie hasn’t let this phase her at all, bouncing back from lip and palate operations remarkably well. She’s constantly active, loving anything to do with water play or being outdoors. Sophie turns 2 this month, and we have a family trip to CBeebies World to celebrate (and cake!)
To relax, I enjoy anything to do with sport and motorsports – I’ve many Lego technic models built. As a family, we try to get outdoors as much as possible.
I saw an advert for CLAPA Dad’s Club and thought that would be perfect for me.
Not only is it an opportunity for me to start to give back on all the support received, but I think dads generally don’t talk much as a group, and hopefully, this can start to be the change of that.”
If Matt has inspired you to volunteer for CLAPA, please see our latest opportunities and how you can get involved!
