Beautiful You

You’re going to see the word “beautiful” a lot over the next few paragraphs because this is a story of some beautiful people doing beautiful things with the Beautiful You cancer charity.

It often amazes me what inspires people and how these people often end up an inspiration in themselves. Losing a mother to cancer would send many to hide under their duvets for a protracted period of time and rail against the world that such unfair things can happen. Not Debbie Clayton, she saw first-hand what women going through cancer needed and set about creating a charity to provide the help and support that is often missed or non-existent via regular treatment channels.

Debbie was a remedial massage therapist at the time she began setting up the charity in 2004. After wading through the enormous amount of paperwork involved to get government registration, Beautiful You was born to provide practical, emotional and spiritual support for women on their cancer journey and to help families lead as normal a life as possible. They aim to make a difference no matter how small.

Care and support is how Beautiful You Program began and it is what drives them on to deliver even more services and opportunities for women living with all types of cancer. They understand the importance of looking and feeling like yourself so help to deliver a range of services and support that include:

Oncology massage, prosthetics & lingerie fitting, wig fitting and beauty treatments.

Debbie also hosts Look Beautiful, Feel Beautiful mornings, that provide useful information and tips specifically tailored to help women deal with the appearance-related side effects of cancer treatments and surgery related challenges. The mornings are a great way to meet other women going through the same journey and have born many long-lasting friendships.

Not content to stop there, there is a Beautiful You Op Shop and the money raised there helps to pay for this support and treatment as well as other services, activities and opportunities.

Fighting cancer is hard and at times it can be hard to get out of bed let alone clean so there is also a dedicated and reliable team of beautiful cleaners who can give a helping hand to people undergoing treatment.

Also, thanks to a plethora of amazing local businesses, Beautiful You offer an amazing array of one-off and regular classes for women living with cancer. They’ve hosted jewellery making classes, art classes, photoshoots, nutritional information events and more.

They also have their own Make a Wish. Realising that the positive impact of a wish lasts long after the wish has been granted, they aim to make beautiful memories for the woman going through cancer along with their family by helping to make their most cherished wish come true.

This is surely not a “job” it has to be more a calling or a passion. Often times it is incredibly sad and heartbreaking but at other times so uplifting and infinitely rewarding. To hear and read the stories of resilience and bravery of some of the women that have been through the Beautiful You programme is beautiful in itself. I defy anyone to read the stories on their website and keep a dry eye and not be filled with admiration for the work this charity is doing.

Debbie and her small team of three dedicated and beautiful therapists work with around 15 patients at any given time. Located on the Sunshine Coast QLD they have been approached to offer similar services in Perth and Victoria but pulling together a team with the right mixture of experience, understanding and compassion is not easy.  

Debbie is fighting her own health battles with auto immune type III so she’s no longer able to massage anymore and, although she admits to missing being hands-on, I am sure she has plenty to keep those beautiful hands (and heart) busy!

Firm.n.Fold recently subsidised a powerlift table for oncology massage when government funding fell a bit short. If you’re interested in donating time, money, products or services or becoming a Beautiful You team member please contact Debbie by email [email protected]

More information can also be found on their (no surprise it’s Pink!) website https://beautifulyouprogram.org.au/