Jacob & Kayleigh are in training for the Brighton Mini Mile 2015
Hi my name is Jacob I’m 10 years old, I was born with a cleft lip and palate which didn’t bother me too much at the time but it was harder for my mum and dad.
I had my first operation at three months to have my lip repaired. At the age of seven months old I had my second operation to repair my palate which worked but after a couple of days the palate opened and mum and dad knew that I would need another operation to fix it and this happened when I was 2 years old.
When I was younger I had lots of speech and language therapy sessions. Since being at school I’ve had regular hearing tests and sometimes need to wear a hearing aid if my hearing drops down a bit.
I’ve had regular appointments at the Royal Surrey Hospital at Guildford to see the orthodontist and so far I’ve had 3 different braces.
When I was 9 I had my fourth operation; a bone graft from my hip to fill my gum line this was the hardest one I’ve been through due to the fact I couldn’t eat all the food’s I liked. Mum had a hard time finding things I could eat and dad did a great job eating the food I want to eat but couldn’t. The worse part was that I was not allowed to play football or swim, and at break time at school I was not allowed out to play. But it’s all ok now.
My mum has been a hero throughout this running me here there and everywhere, with getting time off work to make sure I get to all my appointments on time.
Mum and dad told me that the cleft lip and palate association (CLAPA) helped a lot with advice and what was going to happen next.
At Christmas me and my sister look forward to the CLAPA Christmas party which is great fun. My mum helps out our local branch and all the people involved work very hard for CLAPA.
I want to say thank you to CLAPA for everything they have done not only for me but for everyone who has been born with cleft lip palate so I ‘m asking for you to sponsor me and my sister for the Brighton Mini Mile on 11 April 2015 training has started now and we are hoping for a good time.
Many thanks for your help
Jacob and Kayleigh
