peter
“When you’re going through treatment, your skin and your face change. Some days are better, but most of the time, you just feel and look like shit. You are home alone and you may have to go somewhere. You look in the mirror and a squashed marshmallow is looking back at you. No eyebrows, your hair is completely or partially gone, your face has no definition. Who would have any mood for leaving the house feeling like that? Your days pass by, consumed by sitting in the hospital’s waiting rooms attending much-needed appointments. It’s not a place where you’re going to have the chats and the laughs. Most of the time, you want people to leave you alone and get your appointment over. I had a friend who had breast cancer as well. She said, there is this place called ‘Look Good Feel Better’, promise me you will try it! I thought some pampering will be a distraction at this difficult time. I stepped into a warm welcome from the beauty volunteers and felt straight away this was different. Even though it was in a hospital’s boardroom, the place felt light. The ladies didn’t look like they had cancer, even though the first thing they did was remove their wigs and scarfs. It wasn’t like a beauty salon, where you are met with fear and unsure faces after telling them that you are on a treatment for cancer. Here, they gave me a ‘roadmap’, personalised to the stages in my treatment. They were able to help me put on the right products and gave me advice to each of those stages to make sure I will be able to leave my home with dignity. By the end of the workshop, I felt strangely normal. My identity and confidence returned for the first time since my diagnosis. It was only two hours of a workshop, but from then on, putting on make-up became my daily habit. They gave me a toolkit that I could safely turn to even on my worst days. I would find myself putting on make-up even if I didn’t have to go anywhere. It simply made me feel a little better and that made a huge difference in my recovery.”
Dublin Bus and its employees announce the opening of applications for the 2020 Community Spirit Awards initiative and invite local voluntary and community groups to make an application. Any group located in an area served by Dublin Bus is eligible to apply. Applications will be accepted up to 21st of December. For more information and to apply visit:
https://www.dublinbus.ie/About-Us/Community-Spirit-Initiative/Community-Spirit-Awards1/