Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
This former Miss Spain has said she has been fired by a cosmetic company after revealing she is suffering from breast cancer.
Ines Sainz, 44, revealed in September that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and she now says the cosmetic company she was working as director of communication has decided to fire her after finding out about her disease.
According to the model, she was fired by a small company based in Bilbao, in the northern Spanish region of the Basque Country, whose name has not been revealed, after she told them of her diagnosis.
Sainz, who was Miss Spain in 1997, when she was 21 years old, said: “I have been thinking about it a lot, and as my mum raised me as a lady, I will not say the brand.”
She said that the company where she was working for the last two years owed her 1,000 EUR and they had not told her the reason their decision but she was fired two days after telling them of her diagnosis.
She added: “Clearly it was because of the cancer because I told them before work, because I needed to take sick leave for my breast cancer and two days later I was fired.”
“They knew I had cancer, they waited for me to finish some work I had with them, sending a press statement announcing their products, and two days later, I was fired.”
She added: “In all my contracts I have a clause saying that to end the use of my services they have to give me a month’s notice and they did not do so.”
She claims her lawyer was told on the day she was having surgery that the company would no longer use her services.
The model said she had not expected the support she has received after making the claims, saying “the answers I have had are very positive,” especially from fellow cancer sufferers.
The company has denied any kind of unfulfillment contract, local media report.
The model added: “Since I was Miss Spain, I fell in love with this world, but fame scared me, and therefore I decided to move to the other side of things.”
It is unclear if she has filed a complaint and she said that it “wasn’t worth getting involved with lawyers and lawsuits and spending time and money on the matter.”
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