Best Gifts For Breast Cancer Patients
If someone you love has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, you may feel helpless to comfort them. People who go through cancer treatment are often too overwhelmed to even know what to ask for when people offer help. As a friend, it’s difficult to know what will be helpful and what will be in the way or overreach. But your heart is in the right place and you are absolutely correct that your friend will need help and support through this difficult journey. Here are some of the best things to do for or give someone who has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.
- Start a Meal Train. Ask first whether anyone has done this already. Get input from your friend and their family as to what will be most helpful. The great thing about using the Meal Train website is that folks who are too far to deliver food can donate money or send gift cards. Things like grocery delivery cards are also very helpful. It’s often difficult to sustain meal donations throughout a patient’s cancer journey — chemotherapy can take six months to a year! — so cash donations and gift cards can really help stretch that assistance out.
- Ask whether a free house cleaning would be helpful and then contact Cleaning For A Reason. This charity contracts with cleaning services in all 50 states and Canada to offer two free monthly house cleanings for anyone going through cancer treatment. It also helps if you can plan to do the dishes and run a load of laundry whenever you visit your friend — things can pile up quickly when a patient’s energy is reserved for healing.
- A basket of comfort items. Things like sugarless cinnamon gum and soft slipper socks are necessary. Movies and activity books like Sudoku can help a patient pass the time during infusions. Comfortable loungewear like soft, oversized pajamas and easy to put on zipper sweatshirts can really make tired days more comfortable. Lotion, a nice scented candle, a fluffy blanket, or a lap desk for meals in bed can make recovery more bearable. And, of course, we recommend a Necessary Comforts gift set of drain holders — one for showering and one for everyday wear during breast cancer surgery recovery.
- Run errands. Post-mastectomy patients can’t drive for several days to weeks. Ask whether they need a grocery order picked up, medications picked up, or any special purchases from the store. If the patient has kids, ask whether you can take them out for a few hours or even take them in the other room for a movie or activity so the patient can have some quiet time.