Iliana Bellard has had a tough life for a ten-year-old.
In January, she was diagnosed with Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, an aggressive form of cancer.
The cancer, which attacks the lymph nodes, had already spread throughout her body.
“It started in her shoulder and eventually covered up all her heart,” her mother Beth Bellard told WJLA.
“She then had nine tumors throughout her body.”
Iliana’s prognosis wasn’t positive and the only recourse—a painful, difficult, and dangerous course of chemotherapy.
“She was stage four when she was diagnosed,” Beth Bellard explained. “They actually put her on palliative care, ‘cause they didn’t have much hope at the time.”
تم النشر بواسطة Beth Bellard في الجمعة، ٣٠ مارس ٢٠١٨
The child spent months taking treatments at University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill. The powerful chemicals that she received to kill the cancer also killed all her hair.
But they didn’t kill her spirit.
After almost a year of suffering, Iliana was finally pronounced healed—doctors said her cancer was in remission.
“They call her the miracle child because they weren’t expecting what happened,” Bellard said. “So she’s definitely a fighter.”
To celebrate her survival and help her feel more feminine, Iliana’s mother scheduled a session at the Imperial Salon and Day Spa in Stafford, Virginia, short drive from their home in Quantico.
Beth and Iliana showed up on Nov. 30, ready to be pampered.
According to a post on Beth Bellard’s Facebook page, mom and daughter had been looking forward eagerly towards their girls’ night out. Iliana had been counting down the days for over a week.
Unfortunately the experience wasn’t anything like what they had expected.
Insult to the Injured
The spa session was Iliana’s first foray into public space since finishing chemo. Naturally, she was a little apprehensive.
The reception she got couldn’t have been worse.
Iliana’s hair was short but not so long ago, it was nonexistent. After enduring nearly a year of baldness due to chemo drugs, her hair has just started to grow out.
Her nails are also brittle—hair and nails are both formed by the protein keratin. The harsh chemotherapy chemicals damage hair follicles and the nail beds as well.
Some of the nail techs started laughing at Iliana.
“They called me a boy,” Iliana told WJLA. “I was embarrassed a little bit.”
The nail techs at the salon didn’t realize that they were dealing with a cancer survivor who had just recently been declared clear.
Even so, their remarks were very hurtful to the 10-year-old.
And then, the techs’ behavior got even worse.
Even after Beth Bellard explained that her daughter was a cancer survivor who had just finished a year of chemotherapy, the nail techs wouldn’t let up.
One in particular kept making derisive comments.
“She said, ‘I looks like a boy is getting her nails done, it looks like—everybody’s going to think it’s a boy getting his nails done,” Bellard told WJLA.
“And they started laughing. And she says, ‘I just can’t get over that she looks like a boy’, and they just kept laughing about it.”
Iliana tried to stay strong but the remarks clearly hurt her.
“Now she is laying her head on the table as they finish,” Beth Bellard posted on Facebook.
تم النشر بواسطة Eric Bellard في الاثنين، ٣ سبتمبر ٢٠١٨
Shop Tries to Make It Right
Beth Bellard spoke to one of the shop’s managers, explaining her daughter’s situation and complaining about the staff’s actions. She also complained to the receptionist.
The manager offered to add an extra design to Iliana’s nails for free. The receptionist apologized.
Iliana’s aunt posted about the incident on social media, triggering a flood of criticism.
The salon then published a formal apology.
That apology said, in part, “We do not now, or ever support any of our employees making comments to any of our amazing clients. We value each and every one who walks into our spa. We deeply apologize that this has happened.”
Shortly after publishing that apology, the salon shut down its Facebook page—possibly to limit the avalanche of criticism which was pounding down upon the business.
Under New Management
The salon’s owner took a much larger step.
One longtime customer, who asked to be identified only as “Brandy,” confronted the owner.
Brandy is herself a cancer survivor.
The owner was so impressed by what Brandy said, she asked Brandy to take a job as a manager at the salon.
The first thing Brandy did was talk to the staff—and particularly, the one who had persisted in ridiculing Iliana.
Brandy said she was disappointed that the tech didn’t see the seriousness of the matter.
“When she told me, she kind of laughed, and that’s what set me off,” Brandy told WJLA.
“It’s not a laughing matter. It’s not funny. If you were told by the parents she’s a little girl, that’s it … it should have stopped right there. You should have apologized (and) walked away.”
Brandy fired one employee and suspended two others. She also demanded that all employees, including the owners, take sensitivity training.
تم النشر بواسطة Eric Bellard في الأحد، ٢١ يناير ٢٠١٨
She’s a Survivor
Iliana was hurt but she will recover, her father Eric Bellard told WJLA. Iliana had the toughness to beat cancer—she would certainly rise above the insensitivity of a nail tech or two.
She should not have had to, of course.
“It’s not okay whether it was a child with cancer or without cancer,” Beth Bellard said. “Just bullying, it’s not okay.”
“Certain types of people don’t take into consideration what some of these kids have gone through,” Eric Bellard added. “The stress never goes away. The fear never goes away.”
“To me, a child is innocent, and as soon as you make a comment that sticks in their head forever, you just made them un-innocent,” Brandy said.
Brandy has offered the Bellards a free spa session, and hopes, whether they take it or not, they stop by so she can apologize in person.
“By all means, if I get the chance to meet them and to apologize and to fix things, she will know that she is gorgeous when she walks out that door.”
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