Cleft Lip and Palate Association - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Cleft Lip and Palate Association
UK Charity No Charity Commission The Charity Commission for England and Wales is the non-ministerial government department that regulates registered charities in England and Wales....	1108160
First registered	1979
Expenditure 2006/7

The Cleft Lip and Palate Association also known as CLAPA is a charity registered in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

and is the only UK-wide voluntary organisation specifically helping those with, and affected by, cleft lip and palate.

CLAPA was established in 1979 as a partnership between health profession

Health profession

The health care industry, or medical industry, is the sector of the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, palliative, or, at times, unnecessary care...

als and parents of children with cleft lip and palate. It provides support for new parents, for people with the condition and their families, from infancy through to adulthood.

The organisations head office is in London and there are 26 CLAPA branches (all run by volunteers) throughout the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, each providing support to families affected by cleft lip and/or palate. The branches are run by people who have themselves benefited from the organisation, often working in partnership with local health professionals.

Aims

The main aims of CLAPA are:

To organise local parent-to-parent support through its nation-wide network of branches
To run a specialist service for parents and health professionals seeking help feeding babies with clefts
To develop support for children and adolescents affected by clefts at school and in social settings through such activities as confidence-building camps
To encourage and support research into causes and treatment of cleft lip and palate
To represent the interests of patients and parents, influencing policy on future treatment of cleft lip and palate
To conduct educational seminars for health profession
Health profession
The health care industry, or medical industry, is the sector of the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, palliative, or, at times, unnecessary care...

als and the general public
to raise funds in the community for equipment, literature and services
To publish and distribute a range of information leaflets to increase public awareness of the condition
To support projects in countries where cleft treatment is limited or unavailable

BAFTAs controversy

At BAFTA Television Awards

British Academy Television Awards 2007

The 2007 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 20 May at the London Palladium Theatre in London. They were broadcast live on BBC One in the UK...

at the London Palladium

London Palladium

The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...

Theatre in London on 20 May 2007, when presenting Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais

Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...

with the award for best comedy performance Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...

made a joke referring to the statuette as a "Jew with a harelip". CLAPA Chief Executive Gareth Davies wrote directly to BAFTA to express his "serious disappointment" at the incident and he said that "many people found the old-fashioned term "harelip" highly offensive and that "making the condition the subject of a cheap joke was simply hurtful"

Rivers said that she was extremely sorry for any offence caused as this had certainly not been her intention. Amanda Berry, BAFTA Chief Executive, stated that the Academy would "never set out to offend nor make fun of anyone".

On their website CLAPA said it was pleased to receive the apologies but is aware that too many people are still ill-informed about what cleft lip and palate is and what it is not. They added that this ignorance can often feed into prejudice and the media and those in the public eye have a key role in helping us de-stigmatise the condition.

Patron

Carol Vorderman

Carol Jean Vorderman MBE is a British media personality, best known for co-hosting the popular game show Countdown for 26 years from 1982 to 2008. In September 2011 she became a co-anchor of the ITV1 panel show Loose Women....

is the current patron of CLAPA. She got involved with the charity because her older brother, Anton, was born with a cleft lip and palate. He had treatment at Alder Hay Hospital in Merseyside

Merseyside

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...

and life was not always easy for him or his family. He is the first to acknowledge that it was his family that carried him through all the difficult times and he is now a successful businessman based in Holland. He retains strong links with his home town, Prestatyn

Prestatyn

Prestatyn is a seaside resort, town and community in Denbighshire, North Wales. It is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. At the 2001 Census, Prestatyn had a population of 18,496.-Prehistory:...

, in North Wales

North Wales

North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

, and last year was the guest of honour at a ball put on by CLAPA Merseyside

Merseyside

Board of trustees

The governing body

Board of governors

Board of governors is a term sometimes applied to the board of directors of a public entity or non-profit organization.Many public institutions, such as public universities, are government-owned corporations. The British Broadcasting Corporation was managed by a board of governors, though this role...

of CLAPA is a board of trustee

Trustee

Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...

s who are volunteers. The board is a mix of people affected by cleft lip and/or palate (with a cleft or parent of a child with a cleft) and health profession

Health profession

als involved in the care of people born with cleft lip and palate. Trustees are selected on the basis of what skills they can bring to the charity and vacancies are advertised in the national press.

Current trustees

Name	Status
Dermot Coleman (Chair Chair A chair is a stable, raised surface used to sit on, commonly for use by one person. Chairs are most often supported by four legs and have a back; however, a chair can have three legs or could have a different shape depending on the criteria of the chair specifications. A chair without a back or... )	Investment Manager
Arthur Winn (Treasurer Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:... )	Pricing Manager for British Telecom
Helen Langford	Nurse
Milan Taylor	Senior Director, Sweet & Maxwell Sweet & Maxwell Sweet & Maxwell is a British publisher specialising in legal publications. It joined the Associated Book Publishers in 1969; ABP was purchased by the Thomson Organization in 1987, and is now part of Thomson Reuters. Its British group includes W. Green in Scotland and Round Hall in Ireland...
Emma Southby	Clinical Nurse Specialist
Ginette Phippen	Speech and Language Therapist
Bernard Nyman	Lawyer Lawyer A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

External links

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