Help a Friend

Do you have a friend who has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer?  Looking for advice on what to do, what to say?  I don’t know all the answers, but I’m definitely learning some things along the way.  I did a few posts in November and December 2007 that may be of help to you.  Check them out below, and be sure to read the comments from other people with cancer and their friends.  They have awesome ideas, and I’m delighted to include them here!  Here are five posts to start with:

• How to Help a Friend;
• How to Help a Friend: Big Ideas;
• How to Help a Friend: Using Your Gifts;
• How to Help a Friend: From a Distance; and
• How to Help a Friend: Intro.

There are also specific posts on:

• Choosing hats for chemo patients and what I wore;
• Putting together a gift basket for someone starting chemo;
• What to say / What not to say;
• What to cook / What not to cook for the chemo patient;
• Wrapping friends with love, shawls, knit hats, and quilts;
• Pre-mastectomy and post-masectomy needs; and
• Shopping for your new body (From Susan at Friday Playdate/Blogher Fashion)!

One other thing you can do to help your friend is to do a little research for her.  Not the grim, medical, statistic-y type research, but the fun research on what kinds of things she can do to help herself and her recovery!  See what you can find locally — here are some places to start:

• The Wellness Community in your area;
• The Young Survival Coalition or a local group at her hospital;
• Gentle yoga classes designed for cancer patients (google gentle yoga cancer and your city to find them, or ask at the local cancer center);
• Look Good, Feel Better, a progam to help with wigs and makeup; and
• Walks or Runs to benefit cancer awareness in your area — maybe you’d like to go with her, just to see all the people who survive this terrible disease.  Or maybe you’d be a walking buddy for her when she’s able to begin with light exercise again.

Every woman who battles cancer is a suvivor fom the day of her diagnosis.  Help your friend by seeing her as such — not a patient, but a survivor.