February 4 is World Cancer Day—a global day of awareness created by the International Union Against Cancer.

With so many members of the GiveForward community battling cancer, we hear every day from our community that words of encouragement from friends and family can make a HUGE difference in a cancer fighter’s attitude and health.

In honor of World Cancer Day, we’re  encouraging everyone to take five minutes today to call or email someone you know battling cancer just to remind them that they’re not fighting this battle alone.   If you really want to make a SUPER-DUPER, HUGE difference, take two minutes to email your friends or office workers and encourage them to do the same.   If your friend battling cancer gets 10 emails today from friends and family just imagine how much that will cheer her up.

In addition to phone calls and emails here are some other silly ways you can cheer up a friend:

• Mail them random cheesy postcards from not-so-distant locales
• Surprise them with an inappropriately funny video
• email them a joke
• email them this photo
• Take a goofy picture of yourself on your phone and send it to them as a text message.
• Send them an annoyingly cute ecard from Hoops and YoYo
• Secretly hide a $20 in their jeans pocket when they are not looking ( Note: if they are wearing skinny jeans this may take ninja-like skills to pull off…)

For more ideas on how to cheer up a friend battling cancer, check out a great organization called Spirit Jump, whose motto is “fighting cancer one gift at a time”.

Lastly, don’t forget to smile today! Laughter really is the best medicine.