Best present by smiles

By Rebecca Fraser
SOME children want their two front teeth for Christmas but all Berwick’s Jonathan Greenwood wanted was a smile.
The eight-year-old was born with Moebius syndrome, a rare condition affecting the nerves and muscles in his face.
Since birth the boy affectionately known as ‘Jono’ has been unable to grin and had a lack of expression in his face.
But following two “smile operations” in Canada and a strong community fundraising campaign the grade one student now has plenty of reasons to smile.
His proud father, Nick Greenwood, said the family was ecstatic with the results and admitted that it had been a very emotional time when Jono first began to smile.
The surgery was completed in two stages, with half the mouth being completed each time.
Mr Greenwood said each operation cost $US45,000 ($60,000) but the total cost of Jono’s new smile was closer to $160,000 once travel and other expenses were taken into account.
“Through research we found that a Canadian surgeon had perfected the craft of creating a smile,” he said.
“He moved muscles up from the leg and into the cheek and attached them to the biting mechanism.
“The first side was done last year and the other side done this year.
“It takes two to three months for the muscles to detraumatise once they are harvested and then he could smile,” he said.
In 2002, as reported in the News, the Smile for Jonathan fundraising committee was formed to pay for the operations and this week Mr Greenwood expressed his thanks to the community.
“The generosity of people and schools has just been amazing and we cannot thank people enough,” he said.
“We still run into people who are keen to find out what happened and we really want everyone to know that Jono finally has his smile.”
Jono also experienced difficulty swallowing and eating with the condition and when he was nine months old he underwent surgery at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital to repair his cleft palate, eye squints and had grommets placed in his ears.
But Mr Greenwood said this was all behind Jono now and they were looking forward to moving on.
He said that Jono had obtained a new talent following the operation — the ability to half smile.
“He (Jono) just loves it and we are just so thrilled,” he said.
“The surgeon from Canada came over to Melbourne recently and we caught up with him at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
“He said the smile is perfect — the symmetry, the dimensions everything.
“We are just so thrilled and so thankful.
“You cannot put a price on this as it will benefit him for the rest of his life.
“He has come through this and is still so appreciative of everything that has been done and now he is really kicking goals,” he said.
Mr Greenwood said he and his wife, Kerri, still often thought about the journey Jono had taken to earn his smile.
“I have got him on my screensaver at work and sometimes I just have to kick back and think about a) the journey and b) the blessing that by his eighth birthday this is all behind him and he can benefit for the rest of his life,” he said.
“We have achieved what we hoped it would achieve.
“We just want to thank everyone from those who gave spare coins into a tin to the companies and everyone that helped us raise the money,” he said.