Hi, I recently found out that the mother of a 16 year old that I train has stage 4 lung cancer. They told me that the cancer was treatable, but not curable & that the best case scenario for her is that she'll live for another 5 years (they also added that only about 15% of people have lived for that length of time). I'm pretty close with the kid (young man) and his family and we talk about a lot of stuff.. he's very close with his mother & has told me before that she's his best friend. He's a very emotionally centred person & hide's it well, but once you get to know him, you can tell that there's more to him then meet's the eye. His mother's cancer will naturally be on his mind and it will dictate a lot of his decisions & actions in the near future. I know we're going to talk a lot about this & have many of 1-on-1 conversations in the future, and I'm really happy he is comfortable enough to be able to open up to me about it (I'm a big believer in talking out problems and believe 'a problem shared is a problem halved') but the truth of the matter is that I have no idea what I'm supposed to say or do in these conversations! this is way out of my league, and I don't want to be giving him any wrong or harmful advice! Obviously I am going to listen to everything he says and will be there for him 100% both in the gym and out of it, and I will also suggest that he speaks to a professional - a councillor or psychologist or someone who is better trained/more knowledgeable about this type of situation (I have already done this, but will re-emphasise it again) but as a friend, what else should I be saying/doing when he talks to me? I know the question 'why does this have to happen to me/mum/us' will come up as well as many other unanswerable questions… how am I supposed to answer them? what am I supposed to say? I want to be helpful, but at the same time truthful. Religion doesn't play a big part of his life so I don't want to use the old 'God works in mysterious ways' line. I'd love to hear any advice/encouragement/support people have given/received in the past, because I have a feeling this kid is going to need it… Any advice? thanks, Mark ... View more