The Ricardo Fisas Natura Bissé Foundation is working with hospitals via an assistance programme to provide free treatments to cancer patients. It also trains professional aestheticians about products and treatments to use on sufferers’ skin and it teaches volunteers how to support patients. Patricia Fisas, senior VP of marketing for the Natura Bissé Group, told delegates of the Global Wellness Summit about these treatments for cancer during a Knowledge Workshop in Mexico City.

Natura Bissé was founded in 1979 and Ricardo Fisas Natura Bissé Foundation was founded in 2008. Currently, 0.7 per cent of luxury skincare manufacturer Natura Bissé's turnover is given to the foundation. The foundation has three main projects to work on:

1) Developing a social outreach programme for the most disadvantaged communities locally in Spain and in Mexico.2) Providing reading and writing support for children with learning differences (dyslexia and ADHD) in Spain

3) Providing free aesthetic treatments for cancer patients in hospitals and clinics across Spain, and ‘oncoaesthetic’ training for professional aestheticians.

The cancer programme began because professional aestheticians from beauty salons came to Fisas and asked what products and techniques could be used on cancer patients’ skin.

An active volunteer at a cancer hospital also told Fisas that patients undergoing oncological treatments in Spain don’t receive any professional aesthetic advice to treat their skin, which can present severe physical changes that seriously affect patients’ self-confidence, security and emotional wellbeing. It's these basic needs that Natura Bissé wants to address – to give these patients a better quality of life.

"The emotional state of patients is affected by the state of their skin," said Fisas.

Currently, the Natura Bissé Foundation is working with 10 hospitals, clinics and patient associations in Spain. By the end of 2015, the foundation is hoping to sign an agreement with a large Spanish health group, which is a leading provider of health services.

So far, the foundation has given 3,200 free individual treatments to cancer patients and given away more than 5,000 samples of Natura Bissé products to sufferers. Treatments have been received by women in Spain – 72 per cent of which had/ have breast cancer. 47 per cent of these women are in the age range 25-50 and 52 per cent are over 50-years-old.

The Natura Bissé Foundation has held 30 workshops at cancer associations and more than 220 patients attended these.

Having gained experience and know-how in the hospitals, the technical and training team at Natura Bissé – in collaboration with a multidisciplinary doctors involved in the field of oncology – set up a two-day training bootcamp for professional aestheticians to learn about cancer and the theory behind the techniques used to treat patients.

This bootcamp is followed by a practical course that lasts two days, where volunteer cancer patients are given treatments by these therapists. Also during the practical course, aestheticians learn how to prepare their facial rooms with appropriate features to provide a comfortable environment for oncoaesthetic treatments. For example, when a patient receives a treatment there are a number of items that need to be in the treatment room: a place to leave his/her wig, a bottle of water, a blanket, a fan, tissues close by.

Following the two-day course, these trained therapists have access to online materials and a quarterly magazine with the objective of becoming both a source of information and on-going training for professionals.

So far, the foundation has nearly 300 trained aestheticians offering these free services in clinics around Spain.

"We are never going to cure cancer, but we will improve the wellbeing of these individuals mentally and physically,” said Fisas.

While the foundation mainly treats women at the moment, there are lots of men and children who would also benefit from the treatment, added Fisas, who said it's a case of working with the hospitals and seeking their co-operation.