An aesthetics practitioner from Barry has launched a new charity venture to help cancer patients maintain their appearance during and after treatment.
Two years ago, Catalina Sirena Payne, who owns White Lies Aesthetics Lounge on High Street, Barry, wanted to do something to help people suffering hair loss due to chemotherapy and began offering free specialised eyebrow and eyelash treatments, along with permanent makeup and scalp pigmentation.
Catalina initially offered the free treatments to two or three cancer patients per month, but as word spread around the community, she was astounded by the level of demand: “Patients don’t just lose the hair on top of their head, they lose all their hair, and the treatments I offer are about helping people maintain that sense of self and identity during one of the most difficult times in their lives.
“The difference it makes in terms of helping women and men maintain confidence and self-esteem while going through chemotherapy is huge.
“I believe that morally, this should be something that’s available on the NHS and that it should come as a standard part of the process of being treated for cancer, but I think that day is a long way off,” she said.
Now, Catalina has set up The Rose Project as a means of turning it into a full-time charity venture, and she says she chose the name for a very personal reason: “I grew up in a city called Fresno in California and later on we moved to Las Vegas, where I had the majority of my high schooling.
“My best friend was Victoria Cheney. One day, not long before I left Las Vegas to move to a boarding school in Somerset, I found a fake rose from somewhere, and for a joke, I tucked it in one of the inside handles of her family’s car above the door.
“I’d forgotten all about it, until eight months later, when Victoria put a post on Facebook asking who’d put the rose there,” she said.
Sadly, not long after that incident, Victoria was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and Catalina did what she could to support her friend during chats on Facetime. She said: “Victoria was and still is a beautiful woman, but I could see how the side-effects of her treatment were affecting her self-confidence.
“She’s doing well at the moment and she’s in remission, though she still sees the doctor on a regular basis.
“After what she went through, and with my skills as an advanced aesthetics practitioner, when I see people who have lost all their hair due to chemotherapy, I think ‘I can do something’.”
Catalina recently launched The Rose Project during a presentation at The Baruc Arms in Barry (as seen in photo left), which was attended by representatives from Cardiff Breast Centre at Llandough Hospital along with a breast cancer survivor who spoke movingly about the psychological impact of hair loss while undergoing treatment.
The presentation was compered by local band The Sound Shack, who also performed a live gig following the speeches.
Catalina is currently going through the legal process of registering The Rose Project as a charity, and she insists that she is not seeking financial donations for the time being: “I’m being careful to do everything legally and correctly, therefore I cannot allow the organisation’s income to go beyond £5,000 per year until everything’s been properly registered, so I ask that people please do not send money at the moment,” she said.
With the venture still in its development phase, Catalina says she would welcome offers of support and mentoring: “I know what I want to do in terms of offering free aesthetic treatments to people going through chemotherapy, but in terms of how to structure The Rose Project, I could do with some guidance and tutoring from someone who has experience in the business and charity sectors.
“I want to scale this up and help as many people as possible, because there is so much potential. We can offer areola tattoos to women who have been treated for breast cancer as well as things like scar cover up treatments, not only for cancer patients but also for victims of domestic violence and people who have been injured in accidents.
“Once we get this up and running, the potential is enormous, and I’d like to rope in other qualified practitioners as well,” she said.
To find out more or to get involved, please visit here (Facebook).
🌟This article first appeared in the printed edition of the Glamorgan Star on 16.06.22 – read it in print first!
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