Chris Penfold is among a team of doctors, nurses and anaesthetists who will visit southern India this summer.

The team belongs to the Northern Cleft Foundation and will carry out surgery on children who suffer from a cleft lip and palate.

There are huge numbers of children and adults with cleft lips and palates in India who have not had access to any kind of treatment for the condition.

Children with unrepaired clefts are often shunned by society, have severe speech disorders, and do not have any education because they avoid going to school.

Now the medical team is going back to Irinjalakuda, a small town near Cochin in Kerala.

It will be the second trip for Mr Penfold, a maxillofacial and cleft lip and palate surgeon at Glan Clwyd and Alder Hey hospitals.

The Northern Cleft Foundation team last year operated on 60 children during a two-week period in Irinjalakuda.

Mr Penfold lives near Ruthin and has worked in Glan Clwyd and Wrexham for 12 years. For the last five years he has been working as a cleft lip and palate surgeon at Alder Hey.

"I treat all babies born in North Wales with a cleft lip/and or palate at Alder Hey Hospital," said Mr Penfold.

The Northern Cleft Foundation is a charity that was set up by surgeons and anaesthetists from the North of England five years ago with the purpose of carrying out surgical treatment for children with cleft lip and palate in India.

The foundation has made five trips to India so far, visiting Mysore, Hyderabad and Irinjalakuda in Kerala.

"I was invited to go as a surgeon on the last trip to Irinjalakuda in January 2007, when we treated 60 patients (babies, children as well as adults) over 10 days," said Mr Penfold.

"There are usually about half a dozen anaesthetists, two to three cleft surgeons and a dozen or so nurses from the UK who take part in each trip.

"There will be two cleft surgeons going on this trip - both from Wales - myself and a surgeon from Swansea."

The team use the facilities of a local hospital in Irinjalakuda and provide all the staff and most of the equipment used in the operating theatres.

The charity pays for the post-operative nursing care of patients which is carried out by local nurses.

And local surgeons look after the patients' follow-up when the team have left India.

It costs about £100 to treat each patient, and all funds are by charitable donations in the UK.

"There is a huge unmet demand for cleft lip and palate surgery in India," said Mr Penfold.

"When we arrived in Irinjalakuda last year there were 200 prospective patients waiting to be seen, some had travelled hundreds of miles.

"I was impressed with how well the team worked and we were made very welcome by the local clinicians and nurses.

"Everyone worked really hard to treat as many patients in the time available and as a surgeon it was a great privilege to work with such a dedicated team of experts.

"One patient I remember especially was a 17-year-old boy who had a complete cleft of one side of his lip and palate (a large gap in his upper lip, nose and roof of the mouth) which, I repaired.

"He was 2,000 miles or so away from his home in Bengal working as a casual labourer in Kerala at the time.

"The family that he was staying with saw the posters advertising the Cleft Camp in Irijalakuda and suggested he went along to see if anything could be done about his cleft.

"One can only wonder what the reaction of his family was when he returned home with his repaired cleft.

"I hope to make regular annual trips to the third world to carry out cleft treatment in the future."

The group's next trip is to Irinjalakuda from June 25 to July 6.
If you would like to put the smile back on a few more children's faces please help support the teams' effort by making a donation.

Cheques should be made out to the Northern Cleft Foundation and sent to Chris Penfold (c/o Angela Roberts) at the Maxillofacial Unit, Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan.