How to Help Someone With Breast Cancer: Practical Ways to Show Up.
Pink ribbons raise awareness. But when someone you love is actually going through breast cancer treatment, they may need something much less symbolic: somebody to take out the trash, walk the dog, lift the bag of soil, or simply sit beside them and talk about normal life. Here are practical ways to show up.
October 2026 Letter to Breastie Back-up Singers
It’s October, which means everything is pink and everybody suddenly remembers breasts exist. Around here, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is about the actual people living through cancer—and the neighbors showing up to help.
Why Gardening? It All Starts With the Bench.
Before Backyard Breasties had a name, there was a driveway full of uprooted plants, Britany’s unmistakable voice, and a concrete bench marked with a breast cancer ribbon. That bench changed how I understood what a garden could hold—and why five minutes in one still counts.
The Things Nobody Tells You About Breast Cancer
I have a CT scan coming up.
Nothing serious.
Probably my sinuses.
Everything is a little puffy, so they ordered an ultrasound.
The ultrasound found something that was just the tiniest bit out of whack.
And now…
I
Want
All
The
Scans.
Cancer Treatment Should Not Have to Kill Your Plants Too
It is not small when the backyard was the place where you could breathe before the diagnosis came in and rearranged the furniture of your whole life.
Cancer treatment can make even ordinary things feel like climbing a hill, in the snow, in flip-flops. Watering. Weeding. Dragging a hose. Lifting a bag of soil. Bending down to prune something. Remembering whether the seedlings got watered yesterday or three days ago because every day has become some strange soup of appointments, fatigue, and “what did the doctor say again?”
That is where Backyard Breasties comes in.
Caregiver Comfort Kit Part 1
At Backyard Breasties, we talk a lot about survivors, gardens, and the strange heartbreak of watching the life around you need care when you barely have enough energy for your own body. But we also know this: helping caregivers helps survivors too.
A Healing Garden for Ventura County
Painting of the Healing Garden Vision and the Breastie Bucket
Backyard Breasties are Deeply Rooted in the Local Community
Beverly and Britany introduce their first Breastie, Napthalie
What’s a husband to do?
John never imagined that Napthalie would get cancer, more than that, he never imagined she would get it so young. She is active in the community and homeschools their two children. They all needed her. To make matters worse…he knew how to do a lot of things but he didn’t know how to help her with her cancer diagnosis and he didn’t know who to turn to either.
Napthalie’s Testimonial
….so having Beverly and Britany come and offer to help is such a source of hope for me. I’m not alone, I don’t have to do this alone, and there will be so much life beyond this. This is way more than yard work. This is life work.