WWYD - Friends Cancer facebook page

[booboo57]

A friend has recently been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and has set up a Facebook page so we can support her and follow her journey.
I'm finding the whole thing a bit triggering as I lost my Mum (69) to BC 25 yrs ago when I was pregnant with my daughter and my Dad died of cancer 2 years later. I still miss them everyday. I'm now 64, the age she was diagnosed and have been thinking a lot about my mum lately. Now this news from my friend.
I know this is about my friend and not me but I don't think I can face daily updates of her progress. I'm ashamed to say I've not replied to her message or facebook post. She has a wide circle of friends she has known for years and I am a newish friend. Please help me compose some suitable response.

Can you unfollow her? You'll still be friends but just not see her updates or just be honest, if she's a friend she'll understand

It’s her cancer.

You can mute the page.

I wouldn’t just not respond to her if she’s messaged you though, I think you need to find a way to get on with that and then explain that you wish her all the best and will check in occasionally.

I just don’t follow pages like that. I care but I don’t want to see someone else’s ‘journey’.

How big of a social media user are you?

I could probably get away with unfollowing and not commenting as I’m not that active generally. I’d periodically check the page and see what’s happening with a follow up text to the friend about how they were getting on. If you’re quite active on social media, your absence in the comments/likes might be noticed so you might have to talk to her and explain that you want to support her but you feel you can do this through phone calls, visits etc rather than social media.

Thank you for your replies. She is very active on social media but me much less so. If I'm reading your suggestions correctly I can join the group but immediately unfollow so not to see the updates in my feed. Would she know I'd done this? I like the idea of that. I could check in on my terms. I just need to compose a message of best wishes and support

You can immediately mute posts for 30 days, just keep doing that and she wont know.