Since we announ­ced my breast can­cer diag­no­sis, I have been ama­zed at the out­pou­ring of love, sup­port, cards, and gifts we’ve recei­ved. Peo­ple from all over the world have been sen­ding well wishes, flo­wers, gift bas­kets and even sen­ding won­der­ful and thought­ful gifts like books, coo­kies, stuf­fed ani­mals, vita­mins and spa cer­ti­fi­ca­tes. And so many emai­led or called to ask “What can I do to help?” or “Is there anything you need?”.

It’s truly a won­der­ful fee­ling, and I can cer­tainly tes­tify that it goes a long way to making me feel bet­ter every day. Just kno­wing that peo­ple care and want to do something nice for another human being…well, it warms my heart, to say the least.

And it star­ted me thin­king that many peo­ple really don’t know what to do or say when someone close to them beco­mes sick. Peo­ple want to send a spe­cial gift that is really nee­ded, but unless you fully research the patient’s upco­ming treat­ment sche­dule, it’s a bit dif­fi­cult to know what to buy for them.

And it is hard for me to say what I would like. I mean, I’m just not used to “defi­ning my gifts”, like at Christ­mas­time or birth­days. When I was diag­no­sed with can­cer, friends would ask me if there was anything I nee­ded, and I was stum­ped on how to ans­wer them. All I could say was “I’ll let you know if I need anything”, kno­wing full well it would be like pulling teeth for me to actually call them up and say “Hey, guess what I rea­li­zed I need?”.

So, I star­ted doing some research online to see if I could figure out my “things that would be really great to have now that I have can­cer” list, so that when friends would ask me what I wan­ted, I could actually give them a list to work with.

As I made up my list, it daw­ned on me that this would be a handy gift list for other peo­ple to use when they are trying to get some nifty ideas for gifts to give can­cer patients too. Thus, the idea was born for this very spe­cial sec­tion of the site.

Gift Ideas For Can­cer Patients

I came across a great little script, and have adap­ted it for use on this site. This script was ori­gi­nally inten­ded as an online “Tip Jar”, and it has been adap­ted as a sug­ges­ted gift guide for peo­ple who don’t know what to buy for someone with breast can­cer, or any type of can­cer that requi­res che­mothe­rapy or radia­tion treatments.

The list has been care­fully researched to inc­lude all the dif­fe­rent help­ful items that I will need when I’m going through che­mothe­rapy in the coming months. In pre­pa­ring for treat­ments, I’ve been get­ting ready for the “chemo days”, kno­wing that there will be at least 12–15 days out of each month when I won’t be fee­ling very well at all. I’ll be dea­ling with nau­sea, hair loss, inc­rea­sed sus­cep­ti­bi­lity to infec­tions, and we can’t for­get menopause.

It won’t be easy, but there are many dif­fe­rent items that can help me feel a whole lot bet­ter and make the entire expe­rience a lot easier.

So, if you’re fee­ling gene­rous, and want to help me in the coming months, please feel free to either send me a gift, or become a monthly bene­fac­tor. It would be greatly appre­cia­ted, and I will also gladly pro­vide you with a per­ma­nent link to your site if you inc­lude your URL when you send your gift.

Or, if you just need a handy refe­rence guide so you can know exactly what a friend will need when going through che­mothe­rapy, feel free to just use this list as a defi­ni­tive can­cer gift idea source. I’m sure your friend would appre­ciate your thoughtfulness!