Helped out when relative almost died (8)
I believe the answer is:
assisted
'helped out' is the definition.
(to help someone out is to assist them)
'when relative almost died' is the wordplay.
'when' becomes 'as' (eg 'when I walked' means 'as I walked').
'relative' becomes 'sis' (short for sister).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'died' becomes 'sted' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'sis' with its last letter taken off is 'si'.
'as'+'si'+'sted'='ASSISTED'
(Other definitions for assisted that I've seen before include "Helped" , "given help" , "Lent a hand" , "to small sibling involved in stormy dates" , "Aided" .)