Surrey woman shares her cleft story for Cleft Awareness Week
Kazzi from West Molesey, says the more people are aware, the more confident people with clefts can be
Kazzi from Molesey has been sharing her cleft story as we reach the end of Cleft Awareness Week.
One in 700 babies are born with a cleft, making it one of the most common congenital conditions - but according to the charity CLAPA (Cleft Lip and Palate Action) negative assumptions and prejudices are still commonplace.
Three babies are born with a cleft in the UK every day. This has an ongoing impact on their feeding, speech, hearing, teeth placement and health, and more. 
It happens to one in 700 babies in the womb if, in early pregnancy, the different parts of a baby’s face don’t fully join up - resulting in a gap or ‘cleft’ in the upper lip or the roof of the mouth.  
One or more surgeries are needed to close this gap, starting at just three months old. Further surgeries are often needed for speech, hearing and teeth placement issues. Treatment usually lasts for 20+ years.
Kazzi was born with a cleft lip and palate, and abandoned by her mum at Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta, India – where she was adopted and brought to Surrey.
Kazzi spoke to us about why raising awareness around clefts is so important
"We need to talk about it because the more we talk about it, the more everyone's aware and then people can feel confident in who they are and what a cleft is and no one's afraid to be themselves anymore"
Kazzi emphasised just how much the cleft community meant to her
"Growing up, I kind of felt like I was on my own and I felt like, you know, it felt really ugly and I felt I didn't really have a community behind me or, you know, like somewhere I belonged
My mum couldn’t look after me because she was so young and poor, especially with my cleft. I remember lots of hospital appointments and having work done all over the place, on my speech, hearing, eating, drinking, and teeth.
I wanted to raise money to help awareness and also meet other people with a cleft like me. I've met so many amazing people that I wouldn't have met if I didn't have a cleft."
However, Kazzi also spoke about how important it was that everyone knew what a cleft was, regardless of whether or not they were affected
"It's so important that people know what a cleft is so that people have a better understanding and people are more empathic towards people who might look different, who might talk differently.
Also just to bring awareness to people who might be feeling alone or parents who might have found out that their baby will be born with a cleft
Friends who have a friend who has a cleft that, you know, doesn't know how to support them, or someone with a cleft who's feeling quite alone and wants to find their own community.
That's why it's so important that Cleft Awareness Week happens every year and that we need to spread the word, for the awareness and for the love."