Welcoming the most heart-warming Smile of all

by Martin Moodie |
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Martin Moodie

Martin Moodie

Martin Moodie is the Founder & Chairman of The Moodie Report.

I can think of no better way to close out the year than this heart-warming story from The Smile Train, the world’s leading cleft charity.

Five years ago in Hong Kong, The Moodie Report (together with Hugo Boss) hosted our first Charity Ball. The beneficiary was The Smile Train and the night was rendered unforgettably poignant for a speech given by a 16 year old girl, Wang Li (pictured below, right).

Seven years earlier, Wang Li, born with an acute cleft lip and palate, was operated on as The Smile Train’s first patient in China.

“I will always try to help other children with clefts, who cry themselves to sleep every night like I did for years,” the diminutive, shy teenager told the hushed audience in Hong Kong, many of whom were moved to tears.

“When I see pictures of what I looked like before [pictured below], it brings back many painful memories. I always wanted to play with kids my age but didn’t dare. I was afraid they’d laugh at me. Also, when I saw other children going to school, I felt very sad.”

[Wang Li before and after her operation]

Commenting on the life-changing operation, she said: “When they gave me a mirror after surgery, I saw a different person looking back at me. A smiling person. I think that was the first time I ever smiled. Since then, I have not stopped smiling. I will never forget how lucky I am that The Smile Train came my way.”

Roll on the clock five years. Last week I received a text and e-mail from Dr Shell Xue (above), The Smile Train China’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Regional Programs, (whose presentation back at that 2007 Gala Dinner will live long in the memory of all who were there). It said: “Our first Smile Train child, Wang Li, delivered a boy on November 16. She named him Wang Xiao Yu.”

Yu is Wang Li’s new family name. And Xiao? Or 笑 in Chinese? What does that mean? You guessed it. Smile.

Wang Xiao Yu (pictured below with his proud family) weighed in at a robust 7lbs, healthy and strong. Wang Li made these pictures of her and her baby available for publication (against local custom) and to help fund-raising out of a lifelong dedication to helping The Smile Train assist others. “I am willing to do anything to repay The Smile Train,” she told Shell. “I want to be a leading example for other cleft children to live a different and meaningful life.”

What a story. After nine years of suffering by a child and her parents, a life was transformed by a simple operation through a charity that specialises in it. That child should never have had to wait nine years but at least they received the treatment eventually, thanks to The Smile Train. Contrast the picture of that poor nine year old with that of the happy mother below. The transformation will stay with you forever.

I’m pleased to say that The Moodie Report China, our successful new bi-lingual title dedicated to China’s travel retail market, is making The Smile Train China its official charity for 2013. We’ll be pledging some significant funding along the way to help Shell Xue and her team in their amazing work.

As I said, what a nice way to close 2012. I’m sure it will raise a smile. As will a young mother called Wang Li.

Footnote: To support The Smile Train, please visit www.SmileTrain.org. A donation of US$250 will transform one child’s life forever.

  • Having just become a grandmother, it’s stories like this one that reinforce the miracle of new life. Why can’t they be on the front page of the newspaper instead of the usual doom and gloom that we read day in and day out? Congratulations to Wang and hew new family.

  • Now this, brings a smile. Wishing the new family heaps of joy and good health, what an optimistic name for the cute newborn.

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