£160,000 for the “Face Value Project” to support the Craniofacial team at Great Ormond Street Hospital with an ambitious five-year plan to revolutionise surgery for children with craniofacial disorders. Craniosynostosis prevents ‘normal’ development of the skull and affects approximately one in every 2,000 children. At birth, a baby’s skull is made up of bony ‘plates’ separated by seams, sutures’. These help with moulding of a baby’s head during delivery and play a role in shaping the head as it grows. The sutures eventually fuse, forming a protective ‘helmet’ for the brain, the skull. In those children with craniosynostosis a single or number of sutures fuse much too early, even up to months before a baby is born. This can seriously restrict the growth and development of the brain, as well as the shape of the child’s head. The funds raised by Sparkle have assisted the vitally needed research to develop new techniques and refine equipment to improve the precision of craniofacial surgery. In the last three years the team have made great progress in pioneering new devises for this surgery which are now being used by other clinical centres.

£180,000 donated for the redevelopment of an existing property, renamed Sparkle House, to accommodate less able young people and their carers so they could participate in the Outward Bound courses at the Aberdovey Centre. The specification of the 16-bedded Sparkle House provides for a range of special needs and severe learning difficulties, including impaired hearing, partial sight and other conditions such as Autism, Asperger’s syndrome and Down’s syndrome. The property was also designed to be wheelchair friendly thereby providing learning adventures for as many young people as possible, irrespective of their circumstances. Since opening in 2008, Sparkle House has enabled over 4,000 children with special needs to benefit from an Outward Bound course helping them to gain confidence and develop life skills