Hearing about people who are actually ill

I have a friend whose best friend had advanced cancer and doesn't have long left.Whenever I see my friend she talks about it in a lot of detail. I haven't met the person but my friend is doing so much to care for her and needs the support of me and our other friends to talk it through. It would be totally selfish of me not to let her talk about it but honestly it makes me so anxious. This woman has two young children who she isn't going to see grow up. My worst fear other than something happening to one of my kids, is the thought that I won't be around too see them grow up. With HA we always try to reassure ourselves that we aren't ill but this just brings it home to me that the things we fear most do happen. I know nobody has the answers to this, I guess I just feel guilty for getting anxious about this when this poor person is actually going through this :(

I'm really sorry to hear this! I feel bad for the poor woman but you seriously shouldn't feel guilty! Us HA sufferers can't control how we think and if we did then we wouldn't have HA!
If it's really making you panic when your friend discusses it, you could try to gently take her away from the subject so she can take her mind off it and you can relax!
Hope this helps xxx