It is all finished!

Sixteen and a half years ago, my beautiful son was born and we began a series of appointments together. Matthew was born with a cleft lip and palate and as such we started attending the cleft clinic at the Royal Children's hospital.

Every six months for the past 16 years, we have spent a day together attending appointments with the ENT specialist; the Speech pathologist; the audiologist, the surgical team and of course our regular 6 weekly appointments with the orthodontists.

Today it was another of those appointments - but the wonderful news is that is was the LAST ONE!

Matthew no longer needs to see the Cleft Clinic Team! He still requires a few years of orthdontics, but the Speech clinic; the ENT and the surgical team have all signed off on his treatment. No more is required!!!!!

We shared the joy of ripping up the last appointment form, no more hours waiting on hard chairs, no more early morning drives, no more exhausting tests, questions and most importantly it appearts 99% likely that he will require no more surgery.

Well done Matthew - you have been wonderful. So patient, well -behaved, patient and grateful.

Thank you to the special teams of doctors who have overseen Matthew's progress - these are the true Angels in this world.