Scarred & Scared no more

They are Scar-y stories that will leave you wide awake.

- JOANNE RAE M. RAMIREZ

The characters in these Scar-y tales are called "monsters" and "weirdos" simply for how they look. One young lady with a congenital disfigurement was so grateful for the pandemic because for the first time in her life, she could use a mask every day.

And yet, they have to live with their condition because charity organizations understandably allocate resources for other life-threatening diseases.

"Have you ever seen somebody line up on a medical mission because of a scar? Or have you ever heard of an organization that does scars for free? No. The reason is because they think probably it's just a scar. There are other more life-threatening conditions," says Dr. Hayden Kho, CEO of the Belo Medical Group.

"It's very expensive. But for us, our expertise is making people beautiful," explains Dr. Hayden.

And why is it important for Belo to make people beautiful?

"Because it's linked to people's confidence. It's linked to their self-love," he replies. "Vicki says, 'A one-millimeter scar on the face is a kilometer in the heart.'

Not a book, but one for the books

Thus, on its 35th anniversary, the Group is launching the Scar project, with all its doctors and plastic surgeons onboard. They have also invited a psychiatrist to help with the inner scars of their physically-scarred patients.