Many of you may know Flossy was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. A cleft lip and palate, whatever the nature, is a very complex facial defect that has both physical and psychological implications. The 5th May 2017 marked the end of a journey for Florence as she completed 24 years of treatment which included 23 surgical operations, over 100 visits to a variety of consultants, in a variety of different NHS institutions, all of which have been outstanding.

By far the biggest treatment and services have been provided by the amazing teams at Great Ormond Street Hospital, particularly under the care of Dr Peter Ayliffe who has led Flossy’s journey and continues to be a big part of her life.

Although Flossy's journey has come to an end, there is of course many many children both in the UK and all over the world for whom this painful, slow and often confusing journey is just beginning. Flossy and her sister, Harriett, are determined to bring more awareness and support to those suffering from Cleft lip and palates around the world and have created an appeal known as Smile A Mile 2018.

Smile a Mile 2018 is the sisters' 100 mile, £100,000 running challenge and appeal. The Ingall sisters will be running 100 official race miles to raise money and awareness for the treatment of Cleft Lip and Palates all over the world.

The sisters will be (or have) competed in the following events: Richmond Half Marathon, Windsor Half Marathon, London Marathons, San Francisco Marathon & the New York Marathon.

The first £7500 proceeds will be donated to Smile Train UK to cover their fundraising target in the London Marathon, the remaining funds will be directed to other world wide charities including Mr Ayliffes charity which administer cleft treatment in developing countries.

Initially, the Ingall sisters hoped to raise enough money to create a Smile for every Mile they run. At £150 per complete cleft surgery, that's a total of £15,000. However, having begun their campaign, they want to be more ambitious. The girls now want to put at least 500 smiles on children faces around the world (£75,000) and if they can raise £100,000, they have an identified sponsors who will match half of the amount raised: that's 1000 smiles created! (£150,000) :)

As we have reached our target for raising £7500 for Smile Train we are now using this page to gather the further donations which will go towards the Face Charity for Operation Hope, run by Dr Petre Ayliffe. The Face Charity is a small charity and will give the sisters the opportunity to go out to the Philippines to see the amazing work. They are not registered with Just giving therefore we are using the crowdfunding facility to gather donations. Below gives infromation on The Face Charity.

Our appeal will give a 1000 children the treatment they would not otherwise get and go on to live their best life. If you feel able to support this appeal and help the Ingall sisters achieve their goal please donate below. Every donation if greatly appreicaited.

To follow live updates of our training and the marathons themselves please follow SmilleaMile2018 on instagram!

The Face Charity, Operation HOPE:

Dr Peter Ayliffe has set up the Face Charity which is a UK based organisation of an international project known as Operation HOPE (Helping Other People Excel). It was initially implemented by a small group of American Filipinos, of whom some were involved with operation Smile. In 1990, they established a group called Philippine American Group of Educators & Surgeons, PAGES, of which their primary goal is to provide free cleft lip & palate repairs to children within the Philippines annually. Operation HOPE carried out 116 medical procedures in February 2017 at a hospital in Angeles City in the Philippines. In February of 2016, one hundred and fourteen cleft lip and palate procedures were carried out in Tarlac Provincial Hospital. Operation HOPE is giving children and families in areas of the Philippines the opportunity to receive life changing surgical procedures for their cleft lip and palates of which without the Face Charity they would not receive.

Our money will be given directly towards Operation HOPE to enable these incredible medical trips to take place in the future so children in the Philippines to receive vital cleft lip and palate repairs and further surgeries needed to improve their quality of life.