How to support a loved one through cancer treatment

Life Kit

NPR

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Kids & Family, Education, Business

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you have a friend or family member diagnosed with cancer or another serious illness, all you want to do is help. But where do you start? What if you say the wrong thing or don't show up in the right ways? In this episode, we go over different ways to offer support. No matter what your strengths are, we have ideas to get you started.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
0:07.3	Hey, it's Mariel.
0:09.5	I finished treatment for cancer a little over a year ago.
0:14.0	Around that time, I was finally feeling well enough to take a trip,
0:17.2	and I went to Arizona for a few days to be in nature, see some cactuses. My friend Zoe
0:22.8	Saunders texted me while I was there. She knew someone else whose friend had the same kind of
0:27.2	cancer that I did. So Zoe asked me, what advice did I have? As someone who just finished treatment,
0:33.2	what was helpful, and what wasn't? I sent her this voice memo.
0:42.7	Hey, I am sitting in the red rocks of Sedona right now.
0:44.8	It's really beautiful here.
0:49.6	I wanted to answer your question, though.
0:52.9	Yeah, I know I sound kind of dreamy and dazed.
0:54.8	Sedona's a spiritual place.
0:59.3	At a moment before, I'd just been sitting quietly, meditating on life and death.
1:04.1	I had some specific suggestions for Zoe, and also a big picture one. I found that for me, going through it, I just tried to let people help in the way that came naturally to them and not expect
1:13.4	things from people that they didn't naturally offer, if that makes any sense.
1:21.4	Like sometimes we want people to fill a role in our life that they're not like naturally
1:26.2	good at, but they're good at other things.
1:28.7	The voice memo went on for a couple minutes, but after I sent it, we both realized this was kind of a mini episode of Life Kit.
1:35.7	So let's make that official, yeah. On this episode of Life Kit, how to help someone who's going through cancer treatment.
1:42.6	About 39% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer
1:45.8	at some point in their lives, according to the National Cancer Institute. So it will probably happen
	...

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