Wondering Who is Affected by a Cleft?

Sports Figures like football star: Blaise Winter (shown on right)

Famous Actors like Cheech Marin,
pictured at left currently co-starring on CBS-TV in Nash Bridges, read his bio, see his picture gallery. You can see a schedule of Cheech's appearances this month on tv. You may remember him from his comedy days - part of comedy team Cheech and Chong. Check out a quick overview of Cheech Marin's film credits.

Other Actors include:
stage and screen star - Stacey Keach shown here playing Mickey Spillane's detective, Mike Hammer. Visit here for the list and descriptions of over 50 other movies he's been in.

American Politician Jesse Jackson, (shown on right)

TV News Personalities including Tom Brokaw (shown below) - Anchor of NBC Nightly News (U.S.)

Beauty Queens, and more....

Read on to see a cross section of the world's population:

My name is Bronwen and I am married to Bart. We have a 10 month old son named Brodie who was born with a incomplete unilateral cleft lip. Currently I am a full time mother (after completing my commerce degree just before Brodie was born), along with running a local play group and various other interests. Bart is a tax consultant with Ernst and Young. We enjoy spending time on our garden and also bush walking and going to the beach.

We are a family that was formed through the miracle of adoption. I have a Master's Degree in Psychology and was a Child and Family counselor before I took my promotion to Mommy-in-chief nine years ago with the adoption of 3-month-old Jacob, born in Korea with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. Joey , Korean-born, bilateral cleft lip and palate, joined a year later at the age of 14 months. And three years after that, Jessica, Korean-born also, with bilateral cleft lip and palate, joined our happy home.

I now edit WIDE SMILES Magazine and my husband mows lawns for the local school district. The kids are fantastic!

Joanne Green

Hello! My name is Tanya...I'm seventeen years old, and a home schooled high school senior from the center of Missouri--the most beautiful state in the Union! (yes, I'm biased!) I was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. My dad and my younger brother also have the same clefting. I am the oldest of six children. I am a black belt in taekwondo, and I am a pianist/singer for my church. Presently I am working on scholarship competitions in preparation for college next fall--which I am looking forward to immensely!

I have two beautiful girls, ages 4 and 5. The oldest of whom was born with a bi-lateral cleft lip and palate. Their father is warehouse manager for a major furniture store chain. I am office manager for a local furniture store. Neither of us is aware of any cleft in our family histories. Our daughter is truly special!!

We are the Ferguson's and We have four children. Tommy age 8, Willie age 5, Daniel age 3 and Julie 7months. Daniels was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate.

Tom is an attorney for a large law firm in Tulsa, OK and I am a housewife. Tom loves OU football and basketball and I spend most of my time as the family doctor, nurse, carpooler, cook, maid, secretary, ETC....I am sure you get the picture.

We love to go camping when we can find the time and Tom and the boys spend alot of weekends hiking and fishing.

We are all very active in our church--Tom is the finance chair, I am president of UMW, and we both teach Sunday school, Tom teaches the Adult III class and I teach preschool. Tommy is vice-president of the Children's Group and Daniel is the hit of all church programs that involve the children. He is a Ham.

Thanks --Mary Lynn Ferguson

Our family: Mum is Dutch, Dad is Greek, we live in Paris, France, where Nicolas was born in May 1995 with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. Mum and Dad are both economists (please Nicolas, do something else with your life!!!) and work for an international (governmental) organisation. Mum is the lucky one: she only works three days a week and the rest of the time she has so much fun with Nicolas!

Darryl and I (Jeanne) are both 31 years old and have three wonderful children. Andrew (9), Stephen (7) and Elizabeth (2). Elizabeth was born with a Bifid Uvula, Submucous Cleft Palate and Pierre Robin Sequence. Darryl is an Investigator for a local Upstate NY Police Department. I am an Administrator for a Computer Software Subcontracting Company. Darryl and the boys enjoying all kinds of Car Racing. I enjoy Dog Shows and volunteering at the school's computer lab. Elizabeth is the light of all of our lives, she always makes us smile! Her favorite book is the 'Going to the Hospital Book' and she says "When I grow up, I be a Doctor!" 10/2/96

We have two daughters and another one due in January. Debbie, our oldest, was born with a unilateral incomplete cleft lip and a bilateral complete cleft palate. Her baby sister is not cleft-affected, and as far as we can tell, the baby isn't either.

I am from New York and Debbie's Daddy is from England. We live in Jerusalem, Israel. For both of our families, Debbie is the only cleft-affected member.

Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2417

I am the grandmother of a little boy who was born on July 3, 1996 with a soft cleft palate. He is the cutest little guy and is doing very well. It is sometimes a struggle to get him to eat but he is growing. The Klines live in Minnesota. This is their first child. He was 8# at birth and 21" long. My daughter does billing in an architectural firm and my son in law works as a gardener for the University of Minnesota. This is their first child. My daughter had a previous still born. She has ulcerative colitis and has had surgery and has a Parks Pouch now. Her husband was born with a growth hormone deficit and at the age of 4 stopped growing. He received growth hormone shots and is now about 5'7" tall. They are very happy with their baby but have had some soul searching these past few months. Both of them when Anthony was born and they found out about his cleft said - what else can we expect - he is our son.

My name is Beth Kaeser and my husband is Rob. Our only child is Paul who was born March 7, 1996 with a wide unilateral cleft lip and palate. We live in Dayton Ohio. I run the wellness program for an 8000 employee company and my husband is a computer engineer and webmaster. We were lucky enough to have Paul's cleft discovered on ultrasound and were able to really prepare for the cleft.

Hi, My wife Lakshmi and myself, Sekhar are from Madras, India and we live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I manage the technical side of an industrial packaging factory and Lakshmi is a Primary Teacher. We have a son, Rahul, born 1986, with a mid-line secondary cleft palate (of soft and bony portions).

Hi! We're a military family. My husband is a computer operator and I have a bachelor's degree in Business/Marketing. Currently I am a stay-at-home-mom but looking for full-time work. We have 2 boys; they are 2 years apart. Our youngest son was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. There are no other known incidents in clefts in our families right now.

The Johnston's are from Lawrence, Kansas and have two children.

Lindsey Renee was born in April, 1992 with a complete bilateral cleft lip and palate. She has had seven surgeries to date. She is a happy go lucky kid without a care in her world!

Our son, Drake Reed, was born in August, 1995. He was not born with a cleft. Drake is a little devil and enjoys being teased by his big sister. He's a big boy and will soon outgrown his "little" big sister!

Daddy Shannon is an applications engineer at Sprint and Mom Jerrie works for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America as a career development coordinator.

I am Chris May, 28 years old, living in Brisbane, Australia. I am a medical doctor, working at a public hospital and training in Psychiatry. My wife, Kerri, has recently resigned from her job with the state government's auditing department in order to be a full-time mother. She holds a B.Com. We were married on 27th November, 1993, and our first child, Emma, was born on 6th February, 1996. She has an incomplete bilateral cleft lip and a complete bilateral cleft palate (both of which were repaired at the age of about three and a half months). The cleft was missed by the 16 week antenatal screening ultrasound. There is no family history of clefts on either side.

We're the Miller's. Jason (18) was born with a Bi-laterial Cleft lip and Cleft Hard and Soft Palate. I, his mother works at a grocery store and his father works at an aluminum factory. We've been married for 19 years, I was 17 and my husband was 19 when we got married. Jason also has a sister Deana, that is 13 yrs old. Jason is a senior in High School, likes to lift weights and ride motorcycles. He also has his Brown Belt in Karate. Jason has been through 9 surgery's in his life, and has two more to go through, both surgeries will be this spring. We live in Fairfield Iowa.

-- Marilu, Don, Jason,& Deana

Hi, I am Giovanni (41) and my wife is Anna Maria (40) we both are graduate in Economics. I have been an auditor in one of the "Big eight" for 5 years and I am now finance manager in a tile industry since 1985; Anna works in a bank. We got married in 1987 and in 1988 was borne our daughter Agnese, a lovely child with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. All of us have been heavily proved in her first four years where she went through three surgeries in Rome, about 400 Km from our town (Modena, Italy). Today Agnese (9) is a very calm, quiet, proud, generous, brave and lovely child and she loves other children and animals. Particularly she likes to ride horses. We have always been open and sincere with her and we never lied about the problem. She appreciated that a lot and I am sure she loves us. She feels good and she trusts herself, she is very clever at school.
Ciao!!!
Giovanni, AnnaMaria and Agnese