Words by Smiley Team
Katie Manning, teacher and mother of three from Oxford, has committed to hand-drawing 100 portraits of children and adults born with cleft by the end of next year.
She has already released her first 15 portraits in aid of Smile Train UK – the international children’s cleft charity – to celebrate their 15th birthday milestone.
Katie, a former art textiles teacher, was inspired to embark on this artistic adventure following her family’s own experiences of cleft – a condition which occurs when a baby’s lip and/or palate do not fuse together properly during foetal development.
In 2007, Katie’s eldest daughter (now aged 14) was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate – where a cleft develops on both sides of the lip. Unusually, this condition runs in her daughter’s father’s family, as her husband Will was born with a unilateral cleft – as was his father, and so his grandfather before him.
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Like all children born with a cleft, growing up Katie’s daughter required a series of surgeries, orthodontic work and speech therapy. Whilst supporting her daughter through this process, Katie noticed that, despite 1 in 700 children being born with a cleft globally each year – there are still many stigmas and misunderstandings surrounding cleft, which can make things difficult those affected by cleft and their families.
"From just a few months old, our daughter had to undergo a series of medical appointments and surgeries," says Katie. "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.”
Fast forward to today, and Katie is on a mission through the vehicle of creativity to give back to the cleft community, so she can offer support and connection to other mums and families who might be experiencing the same challenges that she did.
“As a ‘cleft mum’ I’ve always found the cleft community to be really mutually supportive and empowering," she says. "I wanted to give back in some way, so I started thinking about how I could use my creativity and passion for art to touch the lives of other cleft mums and cleft affected families. Creativity is our universal language so it makes sense for me to use my skill set to create a community where we can get expressive and have fun together."
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Katie continues: "I’ve always believed that creativity and art have the power to universally connect everyone, so in 2019 I decided to step away from my career as a teacher and start my own creative business. I decided to build a creative community for cleft affected families and mums, where I will run monthly creative experiences online, enabling those who join to meet other cleft mums and children whose life experiences are shared.
"Alongside this vision I woke up one morning and was instinctively inspired to draw the cleft affected community and so I began drafting several portraits.
"My work gives voices to the experience and journey of cleft, and I hope that it will start conversations about all things cleft related. Cleft is not something that just gets fixed. In fact, depending on where you live in the world, it may not even get that. I want to help educate, inform and raise money to support our global cleft community."
Alongside Katie’s cleft portrait challenge, she has also set up a Just Giving page to raise money for Smile Train: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/katie-manning3. Find out more about Smile Train here.
