Legacy Planning is about making your values, wishes, stories, and practical information easier for trusted people to understand. It can be useful at any of cancer care and does not mean that you are giving up or stopping treatment.
This path is peer support, not legal or medical advice. Documents such as an Advance Directive, Living Will, or Health Care Proxy have rules that vary by location, so use qualified local guidance when creating them.
Start With What Matters to You
Think about the people, routines, beliefs, comforts, and goals that you want care decisions to protect. You do not need to solve every future possibility. Begin with the decisions and information that would help your trusted people today.
Practical Information to Organize
- The people you want contacted or involved in decisions.
- Your clinicians, medications, diagnoses, and important records.
- Insurance, financial, legal, and household information.
- Digital accounts and instructions for important personal items.
- Care preferences, spiritual practices, and sources of comfort.
- Stories, letters, recordings, recipes, traditions, or messages you want to preserve.
Conversations to Have
Choose a Health Care Proxy and ask whether they are willing to serve. Talk through what quality of life means to you, what you fear, and what support you would want in a crisis.
Share where documents are stored and give copies to the people and clinicians who may need them. A plan that no one can find is difficult to use.
Keep the Plan Current
Review the plan after major health, relationship, legal, or financial changes. Legacy Planning is not a single appointment. It is an ongoing way to make your wishes visible and reduce uncertainty for the people you trust.