Changing Faces, Changing Lives
Zayne’s story
Zayne came via emergency C-section. He went into fetal distress and we lost his heartbeat. He was rushed in for an X-ray within an hour of being born as they noticed that his head was not the correct shape. He was also resuscitated at birth. The doctors came in later, once his breathing was under control and told us that they couldn’t deal with this and that he needed to go for further testing. They told us that his skull had fused too early and he would need surgery before he turned 3 months old.
We met with the Cleft and Craniofacial team when Zayne was 4 weeks old and were advised that Zayne would need surgery when he was 6/7 months old.
The surgeon identified that Zayne had Sagittal Craniosynostosis. The procedure would be ‘Cranio Vault Remodeling’, which involves reshaping the entire skull to allow more room for the brain and give a more normal head shape. A wavy or zigzag cut is made across the head from ear to ear. Doing the cut this way will allow for normal hair growth later on, and your child’s hair will hide the scar. The procedure also involved a blood transfusion, and we spent 5 days in hospital. Due to the excessive swelling, Zayne’s eyes also swelled shut for 2 days of this.
Zayne will go on to live a normal life like any other child and will hopefully never need another procedure again. He is almost a year and a half past surgery, and he is thriving and meeting all the milestones he is meant to at his age. The Craniofacial Team and his surgeon will keep in touch with us and review him yearly until he is 18 years of age.
Epic Mum, Epic Fundraiser
Meet Cranio-Warrior Mum Rikki
In addition to being a devoted mum to Zayne and raising awareness about Craniosynostosis, Rikki has been a passionate and committed supporter of Craniofacial Australia.
Last year, Rikki was a special guest at our 2024 40th Celebration Gala. In 2024 she also organised her first workplace fundraiser at Westpac (Group Mortgage Operations), raising an incredible $6,134 through raffles, morning teas, a pizza lunch and other staff-led activities.
In March 2025, Rikki teamed up again with the Westpac Community Fundraising Committee to run a second month-long campaign, which raised $8,642. The fundraising month included a pizza lunch and our Chairman, Professor David David AC, shared stories from his life’s work and personally thanked staff — including a few former patients.
Across these two events, Rikki has helped raise an outstanding $14,776 to support families facing a craniofacial diagnosis. We’re incredibly grateful to Rikki and the Westpac team, and the kind-hearted organisations who donated raffle prizes in 2025 including Milpinti, Jurlique, Bickfords, Heysen the Cedars and Cassandra Mamone.
These funds will help provide vital support for the craniofacial community to access treatment and care, advance ground-breaking research, and deliver education.
And Rikki’s not stopping there — this September, she’ll be joining Team Craniofacial for the second year in a row at the Adelaide City-Bay Fun Run/Walk, with Zayne happily along for the ride in his pram, cheering us on every step of the way.
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