People often call me and say, “My friend was just diagnosed with cancer. What can I do to help her?”
My answer is simple: Be present and don’t give advice.
Being present is a matter of maintaining a connection with that person. This can take the form of visits, calls, cards, prayers and other expressions of support.
Providing unsolicited advice is what friends often do, but should avoid. I’ve written about this in the past, but it’s becoming an increasingly significant problem in the Internet age.
This advice is now coming in the form of forwarded e-mails and links to websites. They usually provide the “answer” to what caused a person’s cancer, emphatic dietary advice, or the latest scientific breakthroughs in treating cancer in mice.
Please don’t send these.
I just talked with a woman who she said that she received this sort of e-mail nearly every day from friends who were trying to be helpful. Rather than being helpful, she found the emails disturbing and unsettling. Each time, she had to step back, take a deep breath, and “center” herself.
People who are newly diagnosed with cancer are often emotionally fragile. They’re also struggling to piece together large amounts of information. Sending them additional information – even a well-meaning email about a potential cancer breakthrough – is disruptive and generally not welcome.
Those of us with cancer want our friends to email and connect in other ways. But please don’t give advice or pass along the latest cancer news. Just tell us that you love us and that you’re sending good thoughts our way.
Reprinted with permission of the Ithaca Journal.
Original publication date: July 12, 2014
You are absolutely correct. A cancer patient becomes emotionally weak and such activities can disturb the patient adversely. If someone actually want to help the patient then he/she should give patient complete mental support and search for the best centers of cancer treatment and doctors.
I wish I could have shown this to my Dad prior to his passing. He had pancreatic cancer stage 2 (very treatable)and had done all of his chemo. When reaching the maintenance chemo portion of his treatment his close friend kept texting him that she missed him. He quit his chemo and flew home to spend New Years with her. After 8 months of no chemo the cancer returned but this time he had a tumor in his brain. Only 2 months prior he had an appointment for a cognitive workup due to his complaints feeling forgetful. He cancelled the appointment that would have found the tumor because his friend stated it would create the possible claim of incompetence by his caretakers. We were stunned that’s friend could have such adverse advise for a dying man. My father died 4 months later only to say with tears in his eyes that he was sorry he did not continue treatment . Bad advise has its cost. For him it was his life