Help Light Up A Friend's Life

Call it a distraction. Or an obsession. Either way, it can be good therapy for cancer patients and their friends and families.

I cook as a way of escaping from the stress of work and the depression that comes with cancer. I know others paint, or exercise, or read.

I found an article the other day about Andrea Fisher, a patient at Stanford Medical Center. She got her children and friends together to knit 50 caps for other patients at the Stanford Clinical Cancer Center. The very day they started on this project, doctors told Fisher there was nothing more they could do to fight her oral cancer.

"The news initially stunned Fisher’s friends into silence. Fisher had organized the knitting project as something kids could do — not only her 10- and 12-year-old, but also those belonging to a circle of friends who’d grown closer over the 18 years she fought the disease.

"When they heard the news, they sat in silence, said Lisa Pagan, who’d known Fisher since their early 20s. 'But at least we had something to do with our hands.'”

Fisher's friends and family presented the 50 knit caps to Stanford officials in February, 18 months after her death.

I've been thinking lately about random acts of kindness. Why should they be random? Why can't we act with kindness to help others and ourselves?

We can help by volunteering or donating to services like WhistleStop and Meals on Wheels. It's also about time to start training for the local Relay for Life and the Susan G Komen Walk.

There are simple and meaningful ways to help if you know someone with cancer. You can offer a ride to the doctor's office. You can take care of the kids for an afternoon. You can just be there with a shoulder to lean on.

And sometimes the best way to help: Just share a smile.

For more information on cancer and carcinoid cancer, consider these sites:

Carcinoid Cancer Foundation

Caring for Carcinoid Foundation

Carcinoid Cancer Awareness Network

Carcinoid.com

Stanford Medicine Cancer Institute

Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles

Marin Cancer Institute

University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

Jimmy V Foundation

American Cancer Society