“It’s not what I look like on the outside, it’s what I am on the inside.”
That is the message of inspirational Wishaw kid Craig Mitchell.
At just 12 years old, Craig has had three operations on his face, including one that took more than nine hours, in a bid to tackle a facial cleft so rare doctors had never seen it before.
After overcoming the complicated works, the Clyde Valley High pupil is trying to make a difference through the charity Changing Faces, which promotes facial equality throughout the UK.
As well as this, he also hopes to one day follow in his basketball hero’s footsteps as he dreams of bagging an American scholarship to play his favourite sport stateside.
Confident Craig said: “I was born with a rare form of facial cleft. It ran from the middle of my lower eyelid down my cheek to the corner of my mouth.
“I’ve had three operations and had to miss school, give up my favourite sports for three months and couldn’t go out to play with my friends.
“The sad thing is, there was actually nothing wrong with me. These operations were carried out to make me look normal. But what is normal?
“It’s not what I look like on the outside, it’s what I am on the inside.
Craig continued: “I play for Above the Rim basketball club which I really love. Basketball is my favourite thing. I just love playing it and I want to be a basketball player.
“I’m a big Glasgow Rocks fan and I go to see them play a lot.
“Hopefully one day I’ll make it to America and play point guard or centre – I need to grow a bit taller though!”
“Murray Hendry is my favourite Glasgow player. Lebron James is my favourite player of all time though. I’d love to follow in his footsteps.”
While still at Orchard Primary School, at the age of seven, Craig underwent his first operation when a piece of bone was removed from his skull to form a cheek bone.
This four-hour operation was followed up with a nine-and-a-half hour surgery when another piece of skull was removed to build up an eye socket.
At the same time, tissue from the roof of Craig’s mouth was used to provide more skin under his eye.
Last year another three-hour operation saw doctors attempt to lift skin and muscle at the side of Craig’s eye.
Despite these complex works – and people staring in the streets – Craig has never shied away from normal life.
Now he is a youth ambassador for Changing Faces and he is determined to spread the message that it is okay to be different.
Craig said: “Around about Primary 2 or 3 I realised there was something different about me.
“That’s when I started to notice people staring at me and looking at me in the street.
“I wouldn’t notice it that much but my mum and dad did. I think it got to them worse than me.
“Through Changing Faces I want to let people know about face equality.
“If people have a difference and are scared of it then they shouldn’t be.”
Proud mum Lesley said: “He just takes everything in his stride. Nothing has ever fazed him.
“We didn’t find out there was anything different until he was born because there was nothing in the scans to show anything otherwise.
“It was quite hard for us sometimes to deal with people staring in the street, but he’s never had a problem with it so we've managed to get through it all.
“His character is just to get on with it. He’s so resilient.
“It’s up to him now if he wants any more work done, but he seems happy with how he is and so are we.”
