|
 "It helps a lot mentally ... to feel beautiful and to feel that the
medicine didn't change us," said Khalil, 46, who suffers from
multiple myeloma, a blood plasma cancer.
The workshop is part of a program already in operation in Lebanon
and the United Arab Emirates called "Be Beautiful" that will be
launched this month in at least seven hospitals in Egypt. It will
offer women cancer patients makeup tips as well as mental health
support and advice about nutrition.
"When the cancer patient feels that she is beautiful and when she
gets proper nutrition that will have a positive effect on her mental
state and that strengthens her immune system," said Hanadi el-Imam,
founder of the Hoda el-Imam Foundation, which is organizing the
workshops.
She said the aim is to offer the workshops in five Egyptian
governorates within a year.
Faten Fawzi, a breast cancer patient who was among a group of five
patients learning how to paint their eyebrows and apply conditioner
on dry skin at the Cairo Marriott Hotel, said she felt like her hair
was burned after chemo.
"I went to my hairdresser and he shaved it off completely and I was
devastated and started crying," Fawzi, 46, told Reuters.
"But after that I put on a chic wig that looked like my hair and you
couldn't tell at all that I had cancer."
[to top of second column] |
While she recently got rid of the wig, Fawzi said she still paints
her eyebrows and cares about her makeup routine because it makes her
feel better.
Ghada Salah who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, said she
started to experiment with different wigs and colorful hats after
she lost her hair to chemotherapy.
"I didn't want to look sick," she said. "I didn't want people to
think 'poor her, she has cancer.'”
The organizers hope to serve 5,000 Egyptian women in the first year,
said Dina Omar, a cardiologist and one of the founders of Be
Beautiful.
Globally, cancer is responsible for one in six deaths, according to
the World Health Organization. Approximately 70 percent of deaths
from cancer happen in low- and middle-income countries, WHO said.
(Editing by Sami Aboudi and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
