When faced with tragedy, illness or some other unfortunate occurrance that happens along the way in this thing called life.. you have three types of people. People who care. People who just don't. And people who pretend they care.
When someone you know is going through a difficult time - - do them a big favor. Don't utter these words: "Please let me know if there is something I can do to help." unless you really mean it. 9 times out of 10 - that person isn't going to call on you to do something to help . . but they just might... and if you've a shred of integrity in your body, you'll step up to the plate, if it's someone you really care about.
Without going into a bunch of messy details that wouldn't be fair to the people who are intimately involved - I have only to say this - - yes, there is something you can do to help.
Stop pretending like there is something you want to do to help.
It's not fair to give someone the false illusion that you are a person that they can turn to when despair has hit the wall. They may turn to you as an utter last resort - and then fall into empty space when those arms aren't there to catch them, as they expected them to be.
Do yourself, and everyone involved, the favor of just saying nothing at all.