I wrote an article that appeared in today’s Sunday Times Style section about Smile Train, an incredibly worthy charity that helps mend the cleft palates of kids worldwide.  I had the good fortune to be welcomed to the hospital in Oudomxay in Laos, (I should add, we were on holiday in Laos at the time - this was no press junket, they’re not wasting any of the valuable resources that could be spent on kids’ operations) where they have a wonderfully enthusiastic young surgeon who has been trained by American surgeons to perform what is a relatively simple operation - yet with dramatically life-changing results.

Plastic surgery has a glamorous, yet possibly not that altruistic image - as we tend to focus on celebrity nose-jobs, that’s hardly surprising.  But what I’ve found over the years is that most of the world’s top surgeons are keen to give a little back.

I had a lot of favourable feedback from the article, but better than any feedback is the promise of donations to Smile Train.  So please, if you can, and it’s hard to ask for more when there are so many natural disasters demanding our attention at the moment, do consider Smile Train if you’re in the position to make a donation, and help a little kid to smile.  Literally.