The month of October is recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For women like Mareta Childs, a positive diagnosis for breast cancer leads to a battle not just to regain her physical health, but her self-confidence as well. Now cancer-free, Childs has found her purpose in providing others with comfort and emotional support during the turmoil of treatment.
Childs founded Loving Hands of Healing Hope to provide spa services for those going through cancer treatment. She, alongside her partner Julie McCoy, have serviced around 50 women since their start in 2013. Located on the east side of Tucson at Garden of Eden Salon and Day Spa, they offer their services completely free of charge.
The salon, owned by Childs herself, provides facials, hair services, body care, massages, and manicures.
Each practitioner is meticulously trained and certified to provide the best level of care for the specific needs of their clients. Despite being paid for their services, they donate their earnings back to the nonprofit.
“It touches everyone somehow,” Childs said. The personal connection experienced by so many fuels a genuine desire to be involved, and she believes that all of her volunteers’ hearts are in the right place.
An esthetician herself, Childs witnessed the stress felt by her clients almost immediately melt away the second she laid her hands on them. By giving her clients a space to feel their emotions, it allows them to have a moment of peace and comfort amidst the effects of treatment.
“They see that there is another side to this.” Childs explained, “Their hair will grow back, their skin will go back to normal.”
Self-confidence during cancer treatment can be a difficult thing to maintain, according to Childs. She recalled her own journey, where she experienced hair loss as a result of chemotherapy. After only ever leaving the house with her head covered, she decided to take a trip to Target without doing so. As she browsed through the aisles, a woman approached her, saying, “I just want you to know how beautiful you are.”
Childs works tirelessly to capture that feeling of pure kindness for the patients she services. When going through treatment, she said, it can be difficult for patients to feel a sense of control and independence over their own lives because of the need to rely on others. She experienced that feeling through her own journey, and works to create a safe space for patients to feel in control again.
With the COVID-19 pandemic essentially shutting down their service to protect the safety of their clients, Childs hopes to see a resurgence of people as it becomes safer to venture out.
Loving Hands of Healing Hope offers a beacon of care for women during the physical and emotional trials of cancer treatment. By creating a space where women can be emotionally vulnerable and restore their self-confidence, Childs and McCoy have established a network of support through their nine years of operation.
To learn more about Loving Hands of Healing Hope, visit their Facebook page of the same name or their website at lovinghandsofhealinghope.org.
As we enter Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Childs’s remark remains true, “I think women need women.”