Oxford mum drawing 100 cleft portraits for cleft charity

Katie Manning, an art textiles teacher who now runs a creative business, aims to complete all the portraits by the end of next year.

This week she released her first 15 in aid of Smile Train UK, an international children’s cleft charity, to celebrate their 15th birthday.

Mrs Manning was inspired to embark on the project following her family’s own experiences of cleft - which occurs when a baby’s lip and/or palate do not fuse together properly during foetal development.

In 2007, Mrs Manning’s eldest daughter was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate – where a cleft develops on both sides of the lip.

Mrs Manning’s daughter required a series of surgeries, orthodontic work and speech therapy.

She noticed that, despite 1 in 700 children being born with a cleft globally each year, there is still stigma and misunderstandings surrounding it.

She said: “At first, Will and I were told our daughter didn’t have a cleft, and then some weeks later we were told that she did. It was certainly a surprise, but at least we had time to digest the news and prepare for our daughter’s care before she was born. I know there are many mothers out there who don’t have this foresight, which I imagine must be quite a shock.

“From just a few months old, our daughter had to undergo a series of medical appointments and surgeries. It was a lot to deal with at first – especially as at the time we lived in Singapore, 6,000 miles away from our family and friends.”

Today Mrs Manning is on a mission to connect with other families experiencing the same challenges she did.

She said: “I decided to build a creative community for cleft-affected families and mums, where I will run monthly creative experiences online. “

She added: “ I woke up one morning and was instinctively inspired to draw the cleft-affected community and so I began drafting several portraits. I was moved by the artistic momentum in creating these powerful images. The portraits seemed to combine my personal experience of cleft as a mum and my love of the creative process. “

Mrs Manning approached charity Smile Train UK - which provides free surgery and cleft care to children all over the world - and they allowed her to use some imagery.

She said: “My personal ambition is to create 100 portraits and launch an exhibition to celebrate the beauty in our diverse cleft community and break down stigmas and lack of understanding about cleft.”

To donate to Smile Train: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/katie-manning3 To see Mrs Manning's work go to instagram.com/artbykatiemanning/?hl=en