Grateful parents head up into the clouds to thank amazing team

The mother of a baby born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate has described the Swansea Bay staff treating her as being their “comfort blanket”.
   
Pictured above left to right: Helen Extence, Richard Thomson, Chuley Walton, Emma Gregory, Nicola Goldhawk , Dominique Miguel, Tallulah and Jamie Stoneman 

In a bid to say thank you to The Welsh Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate, based at Morriston hospital, Dominique Miguel organised a sponsored walk to the top of Pen y Fan, raising £1,450 in the process.

While one in 700 children are born in the UK with a cleft lip and palate each year, 
one in 10 of those are born with a cleft lip and palate on both sides (bilateral) like Dominique’s daughter Tallulah.

Dominique said she and her partner had found out about Tallulah’s cleft before she was born. 

She said: “They thought that she would be born with a cleft lip and palate. Obviously, it was very traumatic, but the team have been amazing. They have done so much and have helped so much.

“They have answered every single question we had – and we’ve had lots of questions. They’ve been our comfort blanket.”

Tallulah has already had her first operation and faces two more before her first birthday.

Dominique said: “The surgeon did a fantastic job. Tallulah has been amazing and she looks amazing already. 

“She has only had the first operation but the gap has closed. We’re really happy.”

The family returned to Morriston Hospital recently, following the climb, to hand over a cheque for £1,450 to health board’s Swansea Bay Health Charity. 

The Cleft Team in Swansea were on hand to catch up with the family and were delighted to see how well six-month-old Tallulah was doing. 

Dominique said: “To say thank you we took a little walk up Pen y Fan. All my friends from work joined as well. I think there were around 20 of us calling ourselves Tallulah’s Tribe. We raised £1,000 within 24 hours.”

Above: Dominique Miguel (back row third from left) and partner Jamie Stoneman (back row fourth) from left with friends at the summit of Pen y Fan

Cleft specialist nurse Nicola Goldhawk, who has been with the family for support and advice since the 20-week scan and will remain so throughout Tallulah’s cleft journey, thanked the family.

She said: “We are massively grateful to the family for raising this money for us.

“We’re going to put it to good use to help support many other families.”

Tallulah’s dad, Jamie Stoneman, also praised the staff.
 
He said: “The team has been absolutely amazing. They made us feel very welcome from day one, especially Nicola, she’s been at the end of the phone whenever we’ve had any questions. 

“We can’t thank them enough. We appreciate everything they have done for Tallulah.” 

Mr Richard Thomson, the cleft surgeon who looked after Tallulah, explained that clefts like Tallulah’s often need more than one operation, and her next one will be to complete her lip closure in a few weeks’ time. 

This will be followed by palate repair surgery before her first birthday.

He said: “I’m delighted how well Tallulah has done after this first stage of her lip repair.” 

He added that Tallulah was in good hands.

He said: “This is what we do, day in day out. Our sole aim is to try and address this and to support the family through it.”

Helen Extence, Lead Speech and Language Therapist and Clinical Director for the Welsh Cleft Lip and Palate Service, said the service provides vital support for families across South Wales.

She said: “We’re a regional unit, covering all five health boards in South, West and Mid Wales and patients travel for their surgical repair to Morriston Hospital. 
 
“We provide treatment throughout infancy, early childhood into adolescent years and into adult care.

“Patients can access our service at whatever point they may require us.

“We offer the full remit of cleft care, which involves nursing care, speech and language therapy, psychology, dental, ENT (ear, nose and throat), audiology and surgery and we’re supported by a great admin team as well.”

Helen was also keen to thank the couple for their kind donation.

She said: “We would like to extend our thanks to the family for taking the time to think of our unit.

“Tallulah is at the beginning of her journey and we see children flourish in our unit. We are privileged to watch them grow and see them throughout all aspects of their care.

“We use any donations made to the unit to improve patient care and to support staff in their training and learning so we can further improve the service we offer.”

Cathy Stevens, Swansea Bay Health Charity’s fundraising officer, said: “It was an absolute pleasure to meet Tallulah with her mum and dad.  

“When people come together to fundraise to thank our staff for the care they have received, it is so humbling.

“This donation will make a great difference to the team in improving patient care for future patients.  

“Thank you so much!”