Pink October: How to Help a Friend With Breast Cancer
By the Mahabati team3 min read
October is breast cancer awareness month. Book your own check-up, then see simple, practical ways to help a friend or relative going through treatment.
Every October, Lebanon turns pink. Buildings light up, people wear pink ribbons, and hospitals remind women to get checked. Pink October is breast cancer awareness month, and its message is simple: check yourself, and stand by the women around you who are going through it.
Start with your own check-up
Finding breast cancer early makes a real difference. In Lebanon, women aged 40 and over are usually advised to have a mammogram every year. If breast cancer runs in your family, your doctor may ask you to start earlier.
Last October, the Ministry of Public Health offered free mammograms for women 40 and over at participating hospitals. To ask what's available this year and find the nearest hospital, call the Ministry hotline on 1214. You can read about last year's campaign here.
If you're under 40, ask your doctor when you should start. And send this to your mother, your sisters and your friends. Sometimes one message is all it takes for someone to book.
When someone you love is in treatment
When a friend or relative is diagnosed, most of us say the same thing: "Let me know if you need anything." We mean it, but she will rarely call. It's hard to ask for help, especially when you're tired.
It helps more to offer something specific. "I'll drive you to your appointment on Tuesday." "I'll pick up the kids on Thursday." "Can I bring dinner on Sunday?" A clear offer is easy to say yes to.
Small things that really help
Go with her to appointments, or just sit with her in the waiting room. Help around the house with the laundry, the groceries or a quick clean. Take the kids out for an afternoon so she can rest. Keep texting, even when she doesn't reply. And keep talking to her about normal things, not only about her illness.
Be careful with food advice
Treatment can change appetite and taste, and some days she may not feel like eating at all. Don't push, and don't send her diets or "cancer-fighting" foods you found online. Her doctor or the hospital dietitian is the right person to ask about what she should eat.
What you can do is take cooking off her list, and off her family's list too.
Meals for the whole family
On hard days, the person who usually cooks for everyone shouldn't have to. A gifted meal plan brings homemade food to the house every morning, so the family eats well and nobody has to stand in the kitchen.
You choose the plan and how long it lasts: one, two or four weeks. They choose the delivery days, so the meals come when they need them most, like on treatment days. If there's anything she can't eat, tell our kitchen before you order and we'll tell you what we can do.
For bigger households, our family meals are one dish cooked for the whole house. We deliver in Beirut, Metn and Keserwan. For any question, message us on +961 76 350 079.
Wear pink, and say something
Wearing pink this month is a kind gesture. But the most useful things are simple: remind one woman to get checked, and ask one friend in treatment what she needs this week.
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