When a person loses someone important to them, they go through the normal grieving process. Grieving is natural and, over time, can allow the person to come to terms with their loss.

The American Cancer Society offers a variety of services to help people experiencing the loss of a loved one, including:

· Trained specialists at our nationwide help line, 1-800-227-2345, who are available 24/7/365 to provide emotional support, other resources, and simply someone to talk to.

· Our bereavement support groups listen; understand anger, frustration, and sorrow; offer a helping hand; and provide encouragement.

· Our Web site, cancer.org, educates families about how children grieve differently than adults and how to help them cope with their emotions and fears.

· Our library of print resources include materials to help prepare families for the loss of a loved one with advanced cancer; explain end-of-life health care decisions that must be made; and provide easy-to-understand information about important legal matters, such as living wills, advice directives, and durable power of attorney.

With Memorial Day just around the corner, the Society also offers ways to remember, celebrate, and honor a loved one’s survival or memory.

· Our Mosaic Web site, cancer.org/mosaic, allows family and friends to celebrate a loved one who is currently fighting cancer; who has conquered the disease; or who has succumbed to the disease, by creating an online tribute through which to share photographs, family stories, and messages with others around the world.

· A Memorial Gift of Hope to the Society expresses the sense of loss people face when cancer takes the life of someone important to them, while giving hope to others for a future without cancer.

For more information or resources on how to cope with the loss of a loved one, call 1-800-227-234 or visit cancer.org. To honor a loved one’s cancer fight, donate online at cancer.org/memorial or build a Mosaic tribute page at cancer.org/mosaic.

About the American Cancer Society:

The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing more than $3.4 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us any time, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.

*American Cancer Society’s High Plains Division includes Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.