1.“There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet.” – William Frederick Halsey, Jr.
2.“It’s possible not just to survive but to thrive and to live a healthy, wonderful life again.” – Erika Evans, Cancer Survivor.
3.“You are not defined by what you are going through. Cancer will never have you. You are much more than your disease.” – Anonymous.
4.Be present. Listen. Let them know cancer isn’t their fault, just a consequence of being an organic living creature. Let them know they’re loved.
5.“We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up or fight like hell.” – Lance Armstrong.
6.“If cancer can’t break you, nothing can. If cancer can’t kill you, nothing can. If you can have the courage to fight cancer, you will have the courage to fight anything.”
7.“Cancer is a marathon – you can’t look at the finish line. You take it moment by moment, sometimes breath by breath, other times step by step.” – Shared by Sarah Betz Bucciero.
8.“Love and laughter are two of the most important universal cancer treatments on the planet. Overdose on them.” – Tanya Masse.
9.Cook dinner, clean house, run errands, and do all the disagreeable tasks for your loved one. For example, I made it so my sister never had to scoop the catbox or do any other disagreeable household tasks again once she was diagnosed. I did so by either doing them myself or by arranging to get someone to do those tasks every day.
10.Recognize to them that cancer really, really blows. Recognize their grief and your own. It’s OK for them (and you) to get sad, angry, or whatever else they feel about having a possibly or definitely terminal illness. Don’t minimize the situation. This is their life, and maybe their death. You don’t get to tell them it’s not that bad.
11.“If the only miracle we are looking for is the big one … then we will most likely miss the other miracles that are unfolding before our very eyes, each and every day.” – Deacon Wayne Charlton, Rogel Cancer Center Chaplain.
12.Love them fiercely. Any one of us can die at any time. Cancer is your wakeup call. Love them like living is a limited-time offer, because it is. You lose nothing if they survive cancer and you both gain from the closeness created. And if they lose you first, they’ll have memories of your love.
13.“Acceptance of death and Cancer did not mean I intended to give up, just the opposite. I was prepared to fight Cancer not out of fear of dying, but out of the joy of living.” – Edie Littlefield Sundby, The Mission Walker.