How to be supportive with a cancer sufferer
It is not easy to know how to act when someone you care for has cancer – but it is a challenge you will no doubt be ready to take on and solve.
The last thing your friend or family member needs while they are battling such a serious illness is you acting self-conscious by their side. You must make your peace with the situation and then look at how you can help the patient through it all.
Naturally, everyone is different when it comes to illness; some people like to receive a little special treatment due to their circumstances, while others find it patronising to be molly-coddled or made to feel different. If you are already close to the person in question, you will probably have some idea how they will want to be treated.
However, do not be afraid to ask them this type of question outright. The key is to find out how you can best support them. For some this will involve being an emotional crutch, whereas for you it might be a question of being a sounding board regarding the numerous new medical terms they will come across; for example, IGRT, which is the acronym for image-guided radiotherapy.
The fact is that all cancer sufferers will have their own way of dealing with their treatment and there will be separate parts of the process that will frighten or concern them. Although you should not assume that people will be all doom and gloom after they have been diagnosed; plenty of patients find ways of coping with the help of humour and a renewed sense of purpose.
You will no doubt want to keep your friend or family member in these type of high spirits constantly, but you must temper your idealism a note of reality; sometimes they may just need you to be there with them, rather than actually making them enjoy themselves. In many ways it is similar to everyday life – we are not always in the mood to have fun, often it is nicer to just have some company. A change in a person’s health does not completely change their habits.
Author: Corey Harris is a self published author and health expert. He writes on private cancer treatment. To know more visit http://www.cancerpartnersuk.org/
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