ABSTRACT
This chapter provides guidelines for the non-professional carer and is intended to offer practical advice and ideas. When a person is very busy looking after a sick patient, it is very easy to neglect themselves and forget to take time for their own health and wellbeing. Dealing with serious illness in a relative or close friend can make people become very aware of their own health. It’s natural for them to stop and reflect on how suddenly things have changed for the patient and to wonder if people could also have some undiagnosed illness waiting to manifest itself. Looking after a patient with cancer often makes people think about how things could have been if the disease had been detected earlier or if it could possibly have been prevented. is pointless to sit blaming people for what has happened, but it can be helpful to know a bit more about the warning signs for some of the commoner cancers.
