CINCINNATI — A cancer diagnosis changes a person's entire life — and fills it with appointments, demands and difficult treatments; a spa in Cincinnati hopes through showing "What Love Does," they can help with that stress.
Crystal Grace, owner of Grace + Grit Spa, hopes her business is a place patients grappling with that diagnosis can visit to calm their minds and bodies, offering a space in which they can feel good and relaxed at a time when they're often feeling very bad.
"In the summer of 2021, I went for my regular annual mammogram and my results came back that I needed to have a biopsy," said Bridget Ellery.
Ellergy is a breast cancer survivor.
She said after that biopsy in 2021 it was appointments, more appointments, research, treatment plans — and surgery. All of that, coupled with so many racing, terrifying thoughts.
“It was devastating to say the least," she said.
That's where Grace said she and her employees come in; at the spa, they donate their time and their services for an hour of relaxation for cancer patients and their caregivers. They named the program "What Love Does."
"Coming here, especially when you're going through chemotherapy, what it does to the body, it's hard on your body," said Ellergy. "You're sick all the time, you're in pain, you're weak. And coming here, as soon as you come to the door, it's already an atmosphere of relaxation.”
Grace said she sees caring for these patients as an assignment from God — and while for awhile she didn't know how she was going to help women face their battle with cancer, she's determined to take that assignment seriously.
"He told me over 10 years ago that I was going to help women with cancer," said Grace. "I never knew how that was going to play out. And now that I have my own spa — I have my hands and I have a spa, so that's what we do."
When appointments often mean bad news or painful treatments, Grace hopes her spa can be a spot on their calendar that doesn't stress them out.
"This is the one appointment that [cancer patients] have on their schedule that actually feels good. And gives them an hour where the actual soul can be at rest," Grace said.
Ellergy, now cancer-free for two and a half years, still shows up to Grace's spa for her self-care and said whether it's in sickness or in health, his place is one of love.
“You just have that sense of everything's gonna be okay," she said.
To nominate yourself or someone you know click here.
