A new opportunity for young people, a chance to choose our Awareness Week 2022 theme, and lots more!
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Exciting opportunity for young people!
Do you know a young person aged between 12 and 17 years old? Are they interested in making a difference for other young people born with a cleft in the UK?
We are currently recruiting for new members to join our Children and Young People's Council (CYPC), who meet regularly to help us to improve our work for young people across the UK. Find out more and apply below!
In This Newsletter:
Upcoming Events
Choose our Awareness Week 2022 theme!
Andy's Christmas Run
Share Your Story
Looking For a New Challenge This Year?
Feeding Service: Your Impact
Join CLAPA Voices
Need to Talk?
Upcoming Events
We've got lots of exciting events coming up over the next month, and we'd love to see you there! We've highlighted some below, and you can find our full events listing on our website.
Resilience Workshops
We are pleased to be hosting two workshops for parents and carers, led by Christine Clark, a Training Facilitator in psychological wellbeing: 'Maintaining Personal Resilience' on the 1st February, and 'Building Children and Young People's Resilience' on the 23rd February.
Coffee Club
Our next Coffee Club for parents and carers on Monday 7th February will focus on 'Talking About Difference'. We'll discuss how to talk about cleft with confidence to everyone from siblings to the general public, and you'll be able to share any questions or concerns you might have on this topic.
CLAPA Lounge
On Saturday 19th February we'll be returning with a CLAPA Lounge session for all adults in the cleft community. You're invited to join the informal discussion to meet and hear from other adults, and to talk about 'self-esteem and confidence' in a safe online space via Zoom.
Choose our 2022 Awareness Week Theme!
Cleft Lip and Palate Awareness Week 2022 is coming up in May. This year, we’d love you to help us pick a theme!
We’ve had two ideas for themes so far (The Cleft Journey, and Connection and Community). We’d like to know what you think of these and if you have any other ideas we should consider. Please fill in our short survey by clicking below - we'd love to know your thoughts!
Andy's Christmas Run
Fundraiser Andy took on the challenge of running an astonishing 100 miles on Christmas Day to support our work! He raised £1,320 for CLAPA, all for his best friends' little one who was born with a cleft.
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"The aim for this run was to raise awareness for those with a cleft in the UK. I myself became much more aware of the conditions recently when two of my best friends introduced their beautiful daughter to the world. Soon after she was born, health care staff found out that she had a cleft palate and her care needed to be immediately changed.⠀
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"With more tests and investigations into her development as a newborn, it was found that her Palate was a grade 1 Laryngeal Cleft. Alongside this, she was diagnosed with Pierre Robin Sequence, Tracheobronchomalacia (a rare condition that occurs when the tissue around the trachea/windpipe is soft and weak), and Laryngomalacia (a soft larynx) alongside this. ⠀
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"My friends and health care staff work tirelessly to ensure she always has the most incredible care and she is the happiest and most content baby. However, I feel awareness of these conditions is not high enough considering over 1,200 babies are born each year with a cleft, which can also link to these other conditions.⠀
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"Therefore, my aim with this run was to make people much more aware of these conditions and to raise money for CLAPA to support their work for the UK cleft community."
Inspired by Andy? Whether you enjoy running or knitting, there are plenty of ways to support our work. Explore our website or get in touch with us at fundraising@clapa.com to find out how you can help.
Looking for a new challenge this year?
CLAPA has a handful of places for the Brighton Marathon on the 10th April!
If you are interested in taking part in this iconic race, please get in touch with fundraising@clapa.com and our team will be there to support you every step of the way, from the moment you register all the way to the finish line.
Share Your Story
Your unique story is one of the most powerful ways to raise awareness of cleft. It's also an incredible way to help reassure other members of the cleft community who might be going through similar experiences.
Whatever you'd like to share - a photo, some of your story, or just a few reassuring words to show others that they aren’t alone - we'd love to hear from you. Click below to get in touch!
Feeding Service: Your Impact
“We’d have been lost without this service. We’d been plunged into this unknown and scary world and it felt like a helping hand that pulled us out of it. Something as simple as a bottle that [our son] could use helped me connect with him so much and took all the stress of the first few days away. Just being able to feed my baby, like every mother should, meant everything to me and helped my son grow into the healthy, happy boy he is.”
Each year we send out hundreds of Welcome Packs full of specialist feeding equipment to families across the UK. It wouldn't be possible to keep our feeding service running without you, so thank you for supporting the work we do.
CLAPA Voices
Interested in a flexible way to get involved and influence our work or take part in important research projects? Sign up to hear about exciting opportunities, which you can pick based on your interest and schedule.
Need to Talk?
Wherever you are on your cleft journey and whatever you're going through, you're not alone. With CLAPA's Peer and Parent Support Service, you can chat to a trained volunteer about whatever's on your mind.
Keeping Your Data Safe
We’ll use the information you’ve provided when signing up to send you the most relevant content, and you can update this data (and your preferences) at any time.
Read our Privacy Policy to find out more about how we collect, store, and use your information. You can also get in touch at any time at info@clapa.com or call 020 7833 4883 if you have any questions or concerns.
