Wide Smiles Gallery: Mark

Mark was born on 26 October 1999. Fortunately, we had advance warning of his problems through ultrasound scans. Here he is at six weeks old in his nice hand-knitted cardigan.

Mark is British, like his mum, Helen, and dad, Joe, but we are on Foreign Service in Bogota, Colombia. Mark needs to fly transatlantic to see his cleft team in London.

Mark had his lip repair in the UK on 3 March 2000. Here he is two days post-operation back at his granny's home. He's a bit bruised and bloodied. He was not a great fan of his arm splints. Otherwise he was back to drinking milk from his bottle almost straight away and within a week was starting to return to his old self.

4-1/2 months old and just arrived back in Colombia. Mark on his dad's knee.

Helen with Mark at five months. Testing out those smile muscles! Lip operation healing well.

Since returning to Bogota Mark quickly picked up again and soon started on solids. He really does like his food and is pictured here at six months ensconced in his first high chair. Although there is some reddening and scarring, overall his lip is looking very good.

Again at six months - flexing those arm and leg muscles and flashing his big blue eyes. What a good-looking happy boy!

Mark had his palate repair on June 16, 2000 and all went well. Again he had a hard time adjusting to international travel, new environments and time changes but the improvement in his suction, breathing, swallowing and even vocalising was very evident.

Here he is relaxing in his morning bath back in Colombia (9 months old). Love that hair!!