Hello, unfortunately my cousin aged 21 died 2 weeks ago from leukaemia after a short 7 week battle. His sister and family are really struggling with this as he was so young. She is in particular struggling with chest pains and a sense of tightness around her chest when thinking about her brother. Can anyone recommend any way of dealing with this or any advise that can really help her at this difficult time.
Hi Shiningstar89, I’m so sorry to hear that your cousin has died at such a young age. It is good that you are looking for ways to support his sister and family. Physical symptoms, such as pains in the chest, are quite common symptoms of grief - in fact we had another conversation posted about this yesterday, which you can check out here: https://support.sueryder.org/community/coping-bereavement/physical-symptoms-loss
It is very early days, and the advice that people often share is to be very kind to yourself and take things day by day or even hour by hour. It’s really important to have outlets for grief, so try to give your cousin the chance to talk about her brother and how she is feeling if she needs to.
Cruse bereavement have some more advice on supporting a bereaved person: https://www.cruse.org.uk/get-help/about-grief/how-to-help-someone-bereaved
And don’t forget that your own feelings are important, too, so try to make sure you have someone to talk to, whether that’s friends or family, or other users here on this site.