Cancer has helped me slow down -- a little. I am more patient in the moment without racing to the next task I think is waiting for me. I can better manage my priorities and can offer the most important things the majority of my time. I am better at passing on opportunities that are low on my wish list. And I can typically say "no" if I don't have the time or energy to devote to a request. I know that I have to be healthy and happy and fulfilled in order to operate effectively and joyfully in this world. So I try to enjoy peaceful moments and put priorities first and not overextend myself and slow down. I'm not completely there -- yet. But I plan to keep practicing. And I'm going to try these seven strategies -- offered by a freelance writer, wife, mother of two, and reformed over-committer -- in an article I stumbled across in a local family magazine I picked up this week.

Australian pop star and breast cancer survivor Kylie Minogue has lost her close friend and chauffeur Nigel McCarroll to cancer. McCarroll supported Minogue through her cancer struggles into cancer survivorship. Attending the funeral, she laid a wreath in the shape of his favourite Audi car at the crematorium service, according to Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network.

A friend is quoted as saying, "Kylie was devastated that the disease Nigel helped her fight took his life."

Being a cancer survivor is bittersweet, when some of those you are close to, or become close to during cancer treatments and recovery, do not make it with you. There is always a lining of sadness to the celebrations of being alive, of beating cancer, of knowing you survived cancer. You do not forget the ones who are lost to cancer.

In honoring the memory of those who walked with you, you do not allow yourself to forget. And in those times, when you lose someone close who journeyed along side you in the fight to live, being a survivor holds little in triumphant feelings when you know that someone else fighting the same disease did not make it. You question the fairness of life -- and realize it is not fair at all.

When Someone You Love Is Being Treated for Cancer is a book of tips and insight from caregivers for caregivers when it comes to the needs and issues of being a caregiver for a loved one diagnosed with cancer. Published online by The National Cancer Institute, the introduction states, "The purpose of this book is to focus on you and your needs."

In reviewing it, I found it to be a valuable and realistic resource for family members who find themselves in the role of caregiver because a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer.