Practical tips for caring for someone with cancer

How much you do, and what care you provide, may change over time. You may do less if they have finished cancer treatment and are recovering. Or you may do more if their cancer becomes more advanced.

The healthcare team can help you understand what to expect over time. As the person’s situation changes, the team can give you information and support when you need it.

You can get help and support with personal care from different health and social care professionals. Family, friends, and neighbours may also be happy to help if the person you look after is comfortable with this.

The social worker or district nurse may be able to arrange a care worker to help with bathing. 

Or they can show you how to do it yourself. Having a regular wash, shower or bath can prevent skin problems or infections. It can also help the person feel more comfortable. 

Try to follow these tips:

• Keep to their usual routine and use products they like. 
• Be safe – check the water is not too hot or cold and the floor is not wet. 
• Be sensitive to feelings and mindful of their privacy and dignity.
• Allow them to safely do what they can.
• Use equipment to help, such as a shower seat or chair at the basin. 

If the person you are caring for has hair loss due to cancer treatment, you should follow the advice of their cancer team. We also have information about hair loss and caring for hair during and after cancer treatment. 

These tips might help:

• Use a plastic hair-washing tray if they cannot get out of bed easily.
• Use a rinse-free, waterless shampoo or shampoo cap that goes directly on their hair. You remove the shampoo by drying their hair with a towel. 

Your local pharmacy can give you more information about these products. If the person needs a haircut, you could try to find a hairdresser or barber who does home visits.

If the person you look after needs help to go to the toilet, it may be best for their room to be close to the bathroom. 

A raised toilet seat may make going to the toilet safer and more comfortable. If they find getting to the toilet difficult, they might want a urine bottle by the bed. Or they could use a chair with a toilet hidden underneath called a commode. 

The occupational therapist (OT), social worker or district nurse may be able to provide these. You can also hire them from the Red Cross or buy them. It is important that the person has privacy when using a bottle or commode. 

It can be difficult if the person you are caring for has problems with leaking from the bowel or bladder (incontinence). 

A district nurse can give you advice about:

• protective bed covers
• urinary sheaths
• pads or pants.

They can also usually refer you to a continence adviser, who can give advice about different products you can use. Adult social care may be able to provide laundry services. 

You can get more information about products and services from:

• Bladder and Bowel UK 
• the Bladder and Bowel Community.

The person you are caring for may need help moving or turning. The physiotherapist, OT or district nurse can show you how to do this safely so you do not hurt yourself or the person you look after. 

They may be able to arrange help from care workers, or provide equipment to help you. This could include special sliding sheets so you can move someone easily in bed without damaging their skin. 

Or you might need a hoist to lift the person up so you can position them and gently lower them into a chair or bed.

When a person is not able to move around much, they have a higher risk of pressure sores. These are most common on the bottom, back or heels in people who are in bed or sitting in the same position for long periods.

To avoid this, the person you look after needs to change how they are sitting or lying regularly. If they cannot do this on their own, a district nurse can show you how to move them. They can also provide a pressure-relieving mattress and cushion, and ankle or elbow pads to reduce the risk of pressure sores.

Gently massaging the person’s back, arms or legs with moisturising cream keeps their skin soft.

Your local Carers Trust carers’ centre may offer training in first aid and moving and handling. You could also speak to the GP or district nurse.

We want everyone affected by cancer to feel our information is written for them.

We want our information to be as clear as possible. To do this, we try to:

• use plain English
• explain medical words
• use short sentences
• use illustrations to explain text
• structure the information clearly
• make sure important points are clear.

We use gender-inclusive language and talk to our readers as ‘you’ so that everyone feels included. Where clinically necessary we use the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ or ‘male’ and ‘female’. For example, we do so when talking about parts of the body or mentioning statistics or research about who is affected.

You can read more about how we produce our information here.