Healing children's smiles

On Friday evening, I went to the Bank of England's sports ground in Roehampton, to do an auction for Operation Smile. This is the charity that provides, through the help of dedicated medical volunteers, reconstructive surgery for children around the world born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate. The cost of such an operation is only £150, and in an audience of over 200, half of them agreed to sponsor a child, and the auction raised £49,500. Despite the recession, my last half dozen auctions appear to be holding up well in these hard times for charity fundraising.