Hello, a friend of mine has just found out that she has stomach cancer and the prognosis is not good, they have said 12 months. I cannot get my head around this, and if I feel like this, how must she be feeling? She is 60 with 2 teenagers and a supportive partner. She came over yesterday and she just wanted to talk and cry, and I just hugged her whilst she said how she didn't want to cry in front of her family, she wants to be strong for them. She has a very good support network but she said that she is fed up of people saying that she can beat this, that so many survive from cancer, she has not heard of anyone that has survived it and she is scared that the will not live further than 6 months. I am not sure what stage she is but she starts chemo in 2 weeks and will have sessions every 3 weeks. From reading some comments in the forum, I think she may be having palliative chemo. She says that she does not want to see a counselor as she does not want to waste time talking to someone as she wants to spend what time she has with her family and friends. I have told her that my door is always open (I live next door!) and it is a safe place for her to come and off load, but I am not a specialist - so I am looking for suggestions of how I can help her, support her through this terrible ordeal? She has tasked me with finding someone who has come through this, to give her hope. I also know that I will have to work on my resilience, I am divorced, live on my own and my boys are grown up - they are lovely but are boys and so don't get it!! I have joined this community forum to get some help on how I can support her, give her what she needs, practical advice. I lost both my parents in 2021 and this has brought up some of that grief and heartache, but I don't want that to stop me fropm doing what I can for her and her family.
