CLEFT
CLEFT is a charity which aims to research the unanswered problems in improving care for children born with cleft lip and palate, a condition that affects roughly one in every 600 to 700 children born in the UK, and is even more prevalent in other cultures. We aim to push the boundaries of conventional treatment by funding research into improving operating techniques and by looking at the underlying reasons for cleft deformities. Registered with the Charities Commission in June 2007 (Registered Charity No. 1119630), CLEFT has been set up by the North Thames Cleft Lip and Palate Centre, based at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the St. Andrew’s Centre, Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex. There are other charities set up to help fund cleft lip and palate repairs across the globe, but CLEFT is unique due to it’s focus on funding research into the causes and methods of treatment of cleft lip and palate. Unlike other medical research, cleft lip and palate research is not usually funded by pharmaceutical companies. Because much of it is classified as “clinical research”, it is also very difficult to obtain grants from major grant-giving bodies. However, this research can make a very real different to those affected with cleft lip and palate, including the improvement of less publicised, but equally important, core abilities adversely affected by cleft lip and palate such as hearing, speech and feeding. CLEFT has committed to spending 75% of all funds raised to promote research into the causes and treatment of cleft lip/palate and related conditions, with the remaining 25% used to support the overseas activities in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Uganda and Ghana.