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Moms With Sick Children Treated To Day Of Pampering At CHOP

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There's a community of parents at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who stay there as their children are being treated. You can imagine how difficult and upsetting that can be.

On Wednesday, these moms got to take a little break with the glam squad.

Carmen Morales is getting her hair done for the first time in a long time. She's been at CHOP for five months, staying with her daughter who's being treated for leukemia.

"It's something nice that they're doing, because we sit here and we worry too much about not our needs, but our kid's needs and we focus more on them," said Morales.

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Richard Cornish is the coordinator of salon services and helped to provide some special Mother's Day pampering.

"It's important because these people don't take care of themselves, they're so focused on their kids," said Cornish. "It's something that makes me feel amazing because I get to give my gift to these people who are probably in more need of that gift than anyone."

Carmen's 13-year-old daughter Margarita is confined to her room because her immune system is temporarily weakened from chemo.

Margarita says she was happy that her mom and the others were getting some much needed TLC.

"I think that's nice because they don't really get to do that when you're stuck in a room," she says.

These kind of salon services are always available to caregivers, patients and siblings who are often coping with some scary stuff, especially here on the oncology unit.

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"The treatment was intense. It was day after day, night after night, week after week," said Morales.

The pampering can't fix broken hearts, but it does bring a nice distraction.

"Mother's Day is every day but this is something just totally different, it's awesome, it's beautiful," Morales said.

Carmen and Margarita will be heading home by June and are looking forward to a trip to Hawaii.

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