A friend of mine from high school is an awesome cake decorator. She does it as a hobby and always posts pictures of her cakes on Facebook. Recently she posted that she had done a “booby cake” for a friend’s “survivor party”. The only “survivor” parties I had ever heard of are the ones where fans of the TV show Survivor get together to watch the show’s finale. She said the cake was a little too graphic to post on Facebook, but to email her if you wanted to see it. I was so intrigued by the idea of a survivor party – a party to celebrate that someone’s battle with cancer had been won.

In this case it was breast cancer. We celebrate so many things in life with parties – holidays, birthdays, graduations, going away and coming home. What better reason to celebrate than someone’s battle with cancer coming to an end? Not many occasions are as joyous as that. This is not your every day celebration. This isn’t a holiday that comes once a year. It isn’t a party that you miss knowing you can just make it up to them by showing up to the next one.

This is hopefully a once in a lifetime event celebrating their health and their return to a “normal” life. No one asks for cancer and cancer certainly doesn’t say, “Hey, is now a good time for me to come?” It interrupts your life and demands your attention. It is a very unwelcome visitor. When it finally leaves what better way to mark the occasion than raising your glass with family and friends and saying, “Goodbye and good riddance!”

The survivor party isn’t just a way mark this milestone, but it might also help some people close the book on what was sure to have been a difficult time in their lives. So if you know someone who is dealing with cancer, or if you are dealing with cancer yourself, maybe keep this idea in the back of your mind. Start planning your party now so when the day comes when your cancer is gone you will have lots of ideas about how to celebrate.