Saturday the 14th September was a beautiful, sunny, late summer day when four brave members of the Spires Cleft Centre took part in Swim Serpentine. As the name suggests, the event is held in the iconic Serpentine Lake in London’s Hyde Park . The occasion was a feast for all the senses: an amazing mass of […]
The 9th Annual Oxford Global Surgery Course was held at Kellogg College, Oxford, from the 9-13th September 2024. The aim of the Oxford University Global Surgery Group is to work with partners around the world to support and build capacity for safe, high quality surgical care for underserved populations worldwide. The vision is for safe […]
A brave group of staff from the Spires Centre will be donning their swimming caps and wetsuits in September, in aid of the charity CLEFT. The event will take place in the world-famous Serpentine lake in London’s Hyde Park on Saturday 14th September 2024. Jane Sibley (Cleft Advanced Nurse Specialist), Marc Swan (Cleft Surgeon), Nefer […]
Laurentiu Coroi and his family have kindly donated a plentiful supply of silicone teats to be used with our MAM feeding bottles. This an extremely generous gift and is incredibly valuable to many of our families as having an alternative to latex teats is important for selected babies (such as those with a latex allergy). […]
The European Cleft Palate & Craniofacial Association Conference is held every three years and is hosted by a European cleft unit. In June 2024 a small but intrepid group from Spires attended the ECPCA conference in Milan, Italy. Nefer, Mary, Jenny and Matt were able to learn about cleft care, treatment approaches and techniques from […]
Isabella, aged 8 years, and her mother, Debbie Waistell, organised an afternoon of fun at Emmbrook Football Club in Wokingham on Sunday 2nd June to heighten awareness of cleft palate and to raise vital funds for the hospital. Isabella has a repaired cleft palate and recently underwent a further operation to help with her speech with […]
A successful one-day CAPS-A refresher course took place on Thursday 13th June at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. CAPS-A (Cleft Audit Protocol for Speech- Augmented) is a comprehensive training package for reporting cleft speech outcomes. This training programme consists of in-depth theoretical and practical training on the CAPS-A tool, with a final self-assessment task and […]
On the 16th and 17th May 2024, members of the Spires Cleft Centre and close colleagues from across the United Kingdom came together to celebrate two decades since the formation of our service. The Spires 20th Anniversary Conference successfully showcased the hard work and dedication of our team – past and present – to deliver first […]
Consultants in Restorative Dentistry and their dental technicians gathered at the John Radcliffe Hospital to drive forward standards of care with the aim of reaching a consensus on how to manage this complex cohort of patients. We were thrilled that virtually every cleft centre in the UK was represented at this clinical meeting – as […]
We are thrilled that Matt Fell (Cleft TIG Fellow) was awarded the prestigious Arnold Huddart Medal for the best research presentation at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland held in Manchester on the 19th April 2024. Matt’s presentation entitled “Are left sided orofacial clefts a different entity to […]