Fifty Ways to Help a Cancer Patient
Taken from: If the Battle is Over, Why am I Still in Uniform?
by Brenda Elsagher

1. Send a card so they know you are thinking of them.
2. Visit them at home.
3. Pray for them and their families.
4. Pray with the patient if they want to do that.
5. Bring them a meal or organize meals to be delivered.
6. Pool money with friends and hire a cleaning service.
7. Come over with friends to clean.
8. Play with their children, bake cookies, or take the kids to the park.
9. Call them up and share a joke.
10. Write thank you notes for them, and bring extra notes to leave behind.
11. Lend them music to listen to or videos or DVDs to watch.
12. Read to them, even their mail, if the patient desires.
13. Talk about what they're going through, even the possibility of death.
14. Wash their windows.
15. Scrub their walls.
16. Take shifts staying with them when they are really ill.
17. Bring them groceries, especially easy things to prepare.
18. Cut flowers from your garden and bring them to share.
19. Drive them to their appointments and go in with them to help listen.
20. Donate blood.
21. Give them a book you loved and inscribe it to them.
22. Play a board game or cards.
23. Stay by their side or in their house while the patient sleeps.
24. Fluff their pillows, wash their bedding.
25. Put makeup on them or offer to shave them.
26. Style their hair.
27. Do a pedicure or manicure.
28. Massage a part of their body that hurts.
29. Tell them how much you love them.
30. Bring them ice chips.
31. Walk with them in the hospital, in the house, or down the street.
32. Let them sit in the car and keep you company while you run errands.
33. Make something together - a new recipe, a simple craft.
34. Listen to them.
35. Write them a poem or encourage them to write one.
36. Organize their photos with them.
37. Send them gift certificates for groceries or food to be delivered.
38. Attend their children's school functions if they are unable.
39. Have a "bring a hat" party if they are going to lose their hair.
40. Pick out a wig with them.
41. Be understanding when they are crabby and self-obsessed.
42. Bring birdseed and hang a birdfeeder outside their window.
43. Do their laundry.
44. Balance their checkbook and help them pay their bills on time.
45. Include them in your church prayer chains.
46. Find ways to nurture their significant others or caregivers.
47. Do necessary car maintenance if they are unable.
48. Bring them stamps.
49. Holiday shop for them and wrap their gifts.
50. Enjoy each other by finding something to laugh about.