Ake looks beyond own troubles to focus on bigger picture

By: Kristin Geyer

Posted: 11/24/09

Imagine spending your childhood in and out of the hospital. Imagine having 21 surgeries before your twelfth birthday. Imagine having a birth defect causing you to have permanent hearing loss that requires a hearing aid. Imagine having known you're different since you were born.

This is a reality for sophomore Brian Ake, who was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate.

"It was always hard because I knew I was different. The scars on my lip were always noticeable and whenever I would see a kid my age they would always ask about my lip," said the Topsfield, Mass. native. It took time for Ake to realize that he wasn't the only one in the world born with this deformity, but that there are thousands of children suffering that don't receive proper medical care.

He thought, "If I go about it with the mentality that I have it bad, then what must it be like for kids who have to live with no surgeries."

This idea inspired Ake to get involved with Operation Smile, a non-profit organization that helps children suffering with cleft lips and palates. Though he had the best of care in the United States, Ake realized that this wasn't the case for many children in developing countries.

"Operation Smile was founded in 1982 by Dr. William McGee and his wife Kathleen," explained Ake. Encountering many children with untreated cleft lips and palates on a trip to the Philippines motivated the McGee's to establish Operation Smile after they we're only able to treat some children. Now that the program has grown substantially, it sends teams of medical volunteers to developing countries to both treat children and spread awareness. "They go to 26 countries a year around the world and perform roughly 9,000 surgeries on 100 missions a year," said Ake.

As a senior at Masconomet Regional High School in Topsfield, Mass., Ake became involved with Operation Smile. For his senior project in the fall of 2007, Ake raised $26,000 through fundraising for Operation Smile. In March of 2008, Ake embarked on his journey to Cambodia as part of a volunteer medical team. "Cambodia affected me in a lot of ways regarding both life in general and in Operation Smile," said Ake.

He felt an instant connection with the children he helped. Ake said, "No one should have to go through the shame and humiliation that these kids do. I was ashamed and I received the best medical care in the world here. How humiliating must it be to live with no surgeries at all?"

Ake learned that it is possible for a group of completely different people to come together for a united cause and also that people have it far worse than he imagined. In a reflection blog posted shortly after his return Ake expressed, "When I first set foot in Cambodia, it was a surreal experience." He went on to explain the two weeks he spent there were the best two weeks of his life.

Ake produced a movie documenting his experience. "It's simple, quick and to the point for getting the message across," said Ake.

This year, the film will be screened Thursday, December 3, 2009, in the Hagan Campus Center Hall. This summer, Ake is traveling to Ethiopia on his second Operation Smile mission and will make another film about his experience.

Ake is a member of the Assumption chapter of Operation Smile. "Brian is very excited and passionate about the cause. His passion is evident at every meeting," said Assumption's Operation Smile President Nicole Mikulski. "I think that through showing the movie last semester, more people have become aware of Operation Smile and are eager to join the club."

Ake is also a member of the Assumption Disabilities Awareness Promotion Team (ADAPT) and is a self-proclaimed "sports addict." Academically, Ake majors in Biology and hopes "to attend medical school and someday become a plastic surgeon." Ake sees the change in himself perhaps more than anyone else and explained, "Five years ago if you had told me I would be aiming to be a plastic surgeon I would have laughed."

"A person's greatest gift might be something he or she has right under their nose-no pun intended," said Ake. He continued, "We need to see what we have and make the best use of it."