One of my friend, who I only have known for 2 years roughly is a cancer survivor. I feel like he has always been worried about the cancer returning and whenever he’s ill there is always that worry that cancer is back. He is struggling to see the future. To plan anything in life. Is struggling mentally and physically.
how do you help someone who is worried about cancer returning constantly and can’t see a future? When he is talking about this, sometimes I don’t know what to say. I can’t tell him to be strong, or that it’s just a cold you’re not getting ill or that you’ll get better…because no one’s knows. I do listen, but not sure how to respond to somethings. How can I understand what he’s going through better? I love this friend so much, but I feel and want to be supportive and try but I feel like this is hard when you’ve not gone through it yourself.
thank you
Hi Marry1 and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I doubt you'll find anyone who has had a cancer diagnosis who doesn't worry about the chance of recurrence. We're all guilty of worrying that any new ache or pain means that our cancer has returned.
You might find this information from Macmillan on what to say to someone who has cancer useful in helping you know what to say or do.
Do you think your friend would be open to the idea of joining this community? That way he'd get to talk to others who understand how he feels.
You might also like to you join and post in the family and friends forum to see how others in your situation cope and give support to a loved one.
If you'd like to join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
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"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
