A MORNING tea will be held at the Max Centre on Wednesday to raise money and awareness for CleftPALS.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Young mum, Jessie-Lee Harris, gave birth to her daughter Bridgette almost a year ago and has felt the rollercoaster ride of cleft palate condition ever since.
She said hosting the morning tea would not only be a way for her to say thank you to CleftPALS for helping her and the family, but to encourage families with cleft children to speak up about the condition.
“Everyone was shocked when Bridgette was born with a cleft palate, even the nurses and doctors, because it is usually picked up in scans. Being first time parents, Ben and I were already frightened enough, but to hear she had a cleft palate and have no idea what that even meant was petrifying,” she said.
The morning tea will feature CleftPAL merchandise including ear wraps for children with grommets. Most cleft babies have to have grommets within the first year they’re born.
“Before we knew it our new family was being flown to John Hunter Hospital to see the doctors and speech pathologists. It was a very quick and frightening thing, and we had no idea where to turn. Luckily the doctors were great up there and showed us the special bottles,” Miss Harris said.
The first battle for the new parents was to get Bridgette to drink 50ml of milk out of her special bottle, which wasn’t as easy as it sounds.
Eventually she drank 27ml and was tube fed the rest to be let out and sent home to the Moree hospital.
“We saw the cleft team a month later, two days before Christmas, to organise her first operation which was for her lip repair. It was a very emotional time and we were still unaware of where to turn,” she said.
Since her operation, the family found CleftPALS and became members and followers on the Facebook sight.
“It is so good to be able to talk with families through CleftPALS going through the same thing. Even though I may not necessarily know them, I can relate to them so much,” she said.
Bridgette will go for her next, and possibly biggest, operation in the coming months which will see her hard palate repaired.
“Hopefully locals support the morning tea so we can give CleftPALS a good amount of donations. The local businesses have been great, and I also want more people to be aware of cleft condition. There is a great book that will be for sale about the condition; it’s all about acceptance,” Miss Harris said.
The morning tea will start at 10am at the Max Centre, and all are invited to attend.