Synopsis
When we hear that someone close to us has cancer, we want nothing more than to help. But sometimes we don’t know what to say or do, and don’t feel comfortable asking. With sensitive insights, thoughtful anecdotes, and sometimes, gentle humor, Help Me Live provides a personal yet thoroughly researched account of words and actions that comfort and heal. Based on the author’s own experiences with cancer, and interviews and surveys with scores of other survivors and health care professionals, each chapter tells intimate stories about one of the 20 most important messages people with cancer want to convey, such as “I need to laugh – or just forget about cancer for a while”; “I need to feel hope, but telling me to think positively can make me feel worse”; and “Please don’t take it personally if I don’t return your call or want to see you.” You’ll learn that communicating effectively doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a “right thing” to say or do, but that you can achieve the desired result: to make those who are ill feel better. In candid and beautifully detailed prose,Help Me Live will help you find the words or gestures to show how much you care.
What’s new in the just-release, expanded edition of Help Me Live – Revised:
• A beautiful foreword by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
• Sections on gender, and young adult cancer
• New statements about what survivors want others to know
• A “Quick Guide to Cancerquette” that includes specific advice geared toward workplace issues and rare cancers; statements most people with cancer like to hear; common words, phrases, and questions that can sting; fabulous things people did and said; and more.
• Advice about how to keep hope alive through cancer and beyond;
More about Help Me Live – Revised:
• An intimate guide for families, partners, and friends of individuals diagnosed with cancer, detailing 20 messages to help loved ones communicate effectively.
• Hope does not prescribe behavior; rather it is designed as food for thought: Stories unfold, illustrating what helps, hurts, and heals.
• Although everyone experiences cancer differently, most want the same thing: to be cared for and to feel understood and respected. Help Me Live shows friends and loved ones how to show how much they care.
To purchase Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know, call or visit your local bookstore or IndieBound. The book is also available at amazon.com. If you purchase the book through East Bay Agency for Children, part of the proceeds will go toward supporting the nonprofit, which helps ill and grieving children.