Littlehampton charity ambassador travels to Kenya with Smile Train UK

Nathan Abbot, 25, has raised tens of thousands of pounds for the charity through his own Freestyle 4 Smile initiative, raising awareness of the children who are unable to access the simple surgery that can fix cleft.

As part of his role as community ambassador for Smile Train, he travelled to Kenya to visit Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital in Nairobi. During his Journey of Smiles trip, he was able to meet the charity's medical partners, as well as several of the patients and their families, and see first hand how Smile Train helps people.

Nathan said: "I have been incredibly blessed to meet a number of families who have welcomed me into their homes and hospital appointments to learn about the adversity they have experienced and overcome with Smile Train.

"Cleft is an incredibly simple difference to fix. And the surgery not only enables them to re-integrate into 'normal life' but opens up a whole new world of opportunities – £150 can provide a surgery."

Nathan was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, which resulted in him being severely bullied at school. As a result, he chose to be home schooled and then found a passion for swimming, at which he excelled.

He set up Freestyle for Smile in 2013, at the age of 16, and used his skills to swim huge distances to raise funds for Smile Train, which provides free cleft surgery for children in lower and middle income countries.

Nathan said: "Since I was born, I have had over 30 procedures, a decade of orthodontics and hundreds of appointments and 'completed' my cleft journey when I turned 22.

"At the age of 16 I discovered that there were other cleft children born like me in lower/middle income countries that did not receive the comprehensive care they desperately require. Born in the UK, I had the best care – free of charge. "I created my fundraising movement Freestyle 4 Smile in 2013 to use my cleft journey and privilege of being born in the UK to raise awareness of those less fortunate. Over the decade of raising awareness and fundraising, my story has fortunately been seen by over 20million people and raised tens of thousands of pounds to fund hundreds of surgeries across the world, but more can always be done."

In Kenya, Nathan learned from the doctors some saddening stories due to miseducation. He said some parents hid their children from the local community, some had been encouraged by their own family to kill their baby because it was cursed and some had left their cleft newborns in the woods to die.

His mission is to empower families and children in less fortunate areas of the world and improve the stigma that surrounds cleft lip and palate.

Nathan said: "At a global level, the problem is bottom up. If we engrain a supportive approach into the natural curiosity, a child with a facial difference is someone to support and look after, rather than interrogate with questions.

"If we explain the cause of facial differences and debunk incredibly damaging myths, as they grow up to be adults, they do not propagate this through culture."

Visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/freestyleforsmile-kenya for more information and to make a donation.