There's a wonderful book I have, Kitchen Table Wisdom by a doctor who, herself has Crohn's and talks about that as she tells stories of the people she helps in their final days dying of cancer. It's a really warm, beautiful book, one of my top 10.

http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Table-.../dp/1573226106

She started a cancer training center for physicians, Commonweal in (where else) California:

http://www.commonweal.org/ishi/index.html