Blog

To the Kind-Hearted Supporter

If you are supporting your friend or family member who has been diagnosed with cancer or another chronic illness, you know that role comes with many challenges. It’s hard to…

Examples of What to Say When Someone Has Cancer

In cancer conversations, comments intended to express empathy or comfort can backfire when they are dismissive of the person’s situation, choices, decisions, or emotions. We designed our Talking Tips to…

You Just Found Out Your Friend Has Cancer – Now What?

Most young adults never expect to hear the words “I have cancer” come up in a conversation, and they feel totally unprepared when it does. The news that your friend…

Supporting Someone with Cancer While Putting your own Mental Health First

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I’ve been loving seeing all of the honest conversations about mental health happening all around the internet this month! I’ve seen so many…

Sympathy vs. Empathy vs. Compassion: Cancer Support and Where Each Fits

Sympathy, empathy and compassion are likely all words you’ve heard used a lot within the cancer space. They might even be used interchangeably! But the truth is, they’re all different,…

Ring Theory: The Ins & Outs of Sharing Feelings

When your friend gets diagnosed with cancer, it can be hard to know what to say. We all know that cancer affects everyone around the patient, not just the patient.…

Supporter Mistakes: What To Do When You Get It Wrong

We all want to support our friend with cancer in the best way we can, and most of us would shudder at the thought of saying or doing the wrong…

Improve Your Conversations With Active Listening

Have you ever been in a conversation and thought to yourself, “Wow, this person really hears me, understands me, and supports me?” We have. It’s those moments of genuine connection…

Valentine’s Day and Cancer

Celebrating any holiday with cancer can be an emotional experience for so many reasons, from unexpected hiccups in treatment to grief over your old life to survivorship challenges. But that…

The Blood Crisis: What Every Young Adult Should Know

When you Google how to support a friend through cancer, you will find lots of ideas, from running errands to keeping them company through chemo to delivering meals to them.…

Cancer Supporter New Year’s Resolution

I’ll be honest – I was never much of a New Year’s resolution kind of person before cancer. I always felt like I was just setting myself up for failure…

Cancer and the Holidays: 5 Tips That Will Improve Everyone’s Experience

The holidays are typically seen as a time to celebrate, be with family and friends, exchange gifts, and honor religious or other cherished traditions. When a cancer diagnosis enters the…

Support Through Thyroid Cancer: There is No “Good Cancer”

Feelings upon Diagnosis It was April 4, 2019. It had been ten days since my total thyroidectomy, and I was getting ready to pick my son up from preschool. A…