We’re excited and delighted to have our lovely Advanced Senior Nurse Marjorie back from maternity leave from the 9th May! Marjorie has a huge following of clients, and is also super-excited to get back to seeing everyone again in clinic. It will be wonderful to have some extra hands on deck again, as we have been short-staffed through a combination of health leave (me and Hannah) and maternity leave (Marjorie, Marilou and Kaitlin) since coming back from Covid lockdown last year (doesn’t that feel like a lifetime ago?).

We have some fabulous new injectors joining the team. Dr Sanja Cook joins us from London where she had a successful cosmetic practice, and is confident in highly advanced techniques such as nose filler; while our new Nursing Team Leader, Queza (who starts her onboarding on 7 June), has nearly nine years experience as a cosmetic injector in Wellington. We have had industry experts rave about her skills! A little birdie also tells me that Marilou will be returning part time in November… we will all look forward to that 🤩

In the meantime it’s a huge thank you to our amazing team who have been holding it together, especially our fabulous injectors who have been working super hard to compensate for our staff shortage. Massive thanks to Beck, Eve and Camille who have been superstars. Camille has just gone on maternity leave, and we wish her all the very best for the arrival of her little boy.

You may also see some new faces on the front desk in the next few months, as some of our team have been offered incredible roles that are a big progression in their careers. We are delighted to have been part of their journey. Poemy will be joining a law firm as an account manager, Lisa has been offered the big step of becoming GM for a hairdressing business, while Skylar is following her Comms degree training and is moving to a PR role! We are super proud of how well we (usually) retain our team, and also excited for them when we are part of their career progression into fabulous roles that we know they’ll excel at. The lockdowns have been a time for all of us to reconsider our lives and what we are passionate about, and it’s lovely to see our team following their passions. They will all be with us for another month or so, so please feel free to pop in to say hi and bye. As always, they will remain part of our supportive ‘TFP family’ no matter where they go, and we look forward to seeing them succeed and fly!

I’m a big believer that every ending is the start of exciting new beginnings, and we are currently recruiting for some amazing new people in reception and skin therapist roles to join the team. If you know someone who might be a great fit, please send them to our careers page.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, we are sharing the love to all our mums, along with some heartfelt messages from a few of our team about our mothers. Mums are special people – I have massive respect for anyone who is a mum, it seems like the hardest job in the world! If you’re a mum, or you want to celebrate your mum, we do gorgeous vouchers where she can choose what to spoil herself with! Just get in contact with the team at info@thefaceplace.co.nz

Mother’s Day almost always falls on or around my dad’s birthday, which is the 9th May (a big day this year as it’s also Marj’s first day back in clinic!). This year is very poignant, as it might possibly be Dad’s last birthday. Although he is considered medically stable for now, he seems thinner and more pale each time I see him. I went up and visited Dad in Russell a few days after getting back from Mexico, and while he was mentally sharp and in good spirits, he was obviously more physically frail. I will be joining my brother and his family as we all fly up to the Bay of Islands from 6-10 May to spend some quality time with dad for his birthday.

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_{Visiting my dad in Russell}

With my cancer journey, and my dad’s, I’ve been really focusing on spending time with friends and family. My energy gets better day by day, and my mood and brain function are slowly coming back online. I’ve moved my surgery date to 20 June so that I can attend one of the two big international conferences of our industry in Paris, and I’ll then spend some time with friends in Palma, Mallorca before coming home for surgery.

I’ve been spending some of my allowed 10 hours of work a week doing training for the incoming injectors on ‘how we do it here’, and helping out a little in the background. It’s unlikely I’ll be back seeing patients in clinic before September, as my focus until then will be training, support and compliance. When I do come back into the clinic, I’m planning to reduce my workload, as stress and cortisol have been linked with breast cancer. As I’m not able to take Tamoxifen, I’m going to make lifestyle changes that support my ongoing health. I’ve already handed over the CEO role which took up a significant proportion of my work time, and I’m grateful to Dee for doing an incredible job of taking that over. I’ll still be involved with injecting and guiding the clinic, but just not working 60+ hour weeks like I was!

You will notice from 1 June that our prices will be going up – as you know, wages and costs have been increasing dramatically, and we have held our prices stable for quite a few years now. If this is a challenge for you, we have our prepayment plan ‘My Face Plan’ which can spread out the payments, or get in touch with our admin team to discuss your individual situation.

I was honoured to be interviewed on Seven Sharp this month on the use of masks and how this has affected people’s choice of treatments – along with some hints on how to treat the dreaded ‘maskne’. If you missed the interview, you can check it out here. A big thank you to everyone who saw it and reached out with messages, pics and videos!

One of my achievements from this month was climbing Mount Maunganui for the first time ever! Surprisingly, I have never spent any time in the Tauranga area 🤷‍♀️ My friend Maree lives in Rotorua and found this out, so when I went to stay with her over Easter Weekend, she picked me up from the Tauranga Airport and we went and ‘knocked the bastard off’ (as per Ed Hillary – although I think he was probably a lot fitter than me!). I loved it down there so much, I flew back to Rotorua the following long weekend for the ANZAC Dawn Parade at Ōhinemutu Marae where many of the Māori Battalion are buried or commemorated. To me, ANZAC Day is a time to reflect on those who lost their lives to give us the freedoms we have, and the senselessness of war. A timely reminder with what is happening in the Ukraine, along with other places like Venezuela, Sudan, and Myanmar. We are so very blessed to live in NZ and I’m grateful for the freedoms we have.

War, Covid, cancer – every day I am getting reminders about how precious and short life is, and how important it is to invest our time wisely while we are here on this planet. We never know when our time might be up, we could be in a car accident tomorrow. It’s a great question for all of us to ask ourselves at any stage of life – if you knew life would change dramatically for you in 6-12 months, what would you do with your life? And how close is it what you are doing now?

I know I absolutely love what we do at TFP and can’t wait to get back to seeing patients again! I am also respecting my body’s wishes and giving it the time and space to rest and recover, and to spend quality time with the people I love.

Sending my mum – and all mums – so much love for Mother’s Day, and a special birthday blessing for my dad. Please cherish the people you love this month! We appreciate all your support and patience as we navigate the changes that are happening in the team, and I know that we will have a butterfly emerging from the cocoon over the next few months with the incredible team that is coming together.

So much love and hugs,

Love, Cat 😻 xx