Grieving Toolkit

Grief for family and friends

Grief can be understood as a natural and deeply human response to significant loss. Although it is a universal experience, grief is unique to each person and can look very different from one individual to another. It may bring sadness, longing, anger, guilt, relief, numbness, anxiety, or even moments of joy. It can affect the way we think, sleep, eat, relate to others, and move through our everyday lives. These experiences can come and go in unexpected ways and rarely follows a linear path. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, nor is there a fixed timeline for when grief should become easier.

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Grief for people with lived experience

Grief can be understood as a natural and deeply human response to significant loss. When we experience cancer, grief can take many forms and may arise in response to the many changes and losses that can accompany the illness, whether temporary or lasting. These may include changes to our body and physical abilities, independence, identity, relationships, work, routines, sense of safety, or hopes and plans for the future. Grief can also emerge in response to the uncertainty that cancer can bring, or to the loss of a sense of who we were before the illness. It may involve sadness, anger, fear, guilt, relief, numbness, longing, or even moments of joy. These experiences can affect the way we think, sleep, relate to others, and move through our everyday lives, and they may come and go in unexpected ways.

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This content was created during the YARN project, co-funded under the EU4Health Programme in 2025-2028 (Grant Agreement No. 101219053).