Gracie Jones is one of about 150 children treated each year at the cleft lip and palate clinic at Queen Alexandra Centre for Children鈥檚 Health. It鈥檚 one of 31 programs that serve nearly 39,000 children and youth and their parents supported by the Children鈥檚 Health Foundation, said CEO Linda Hughes.聽 聽
Last year, the clinic purchased a $20,000 fibre-optic scope that allows specialists to watch the child鈥檚 palate in action and diagnose what is needed next. Funding came from Victoria orthodontist Hugh Lamont, a family foundation and the CHF.
Overall, donations are holding steady, but applications for funding are increasing and cannot be met, Hughes said.
鈥淭here are many other programs that we鈥檇 like to support and we鈥檙e just not able to because we don鈥檛 have enough.鈥� Currently, the foundation grants about $2.3 million per year on Vancouver Island.
About 50 to 60 cleft lip and palate surgeries are performed on children through the clinic every year, said Dr. Rebecca Morley, one of two plastic surgeons on the team of 10 specialists.
鈥淭he lip and palate are what everybody focuses on because you can see it, but it鈥檚 really important to recognize what the speech therapists do, what the audiologists do, what the ear, nose and throat surgeons do, the dentist, the pediatrician and everyone else,鈥� she added.
Gracie鈥檚 mother, Lisa, learned about the team while flipping through a magazine years ago. The commitment evident in the article was crucial in convincing her and her husband, Mark, to adopt a child with a disability through The Waiting Child program run by Family Outreach International.
As owner of several Tim Hortons franchises, Mark recently gave $8,000 in Smile Cookie funding to Jeneece Place, another project funded by the foundation.聽
