On Sunday, June 7, tens of thousands of people will celebrate the 33rd annual National Cancer Survivors Day®. This event is held in communities worldwide to champion all people who are living with a history of cancer and to recognize those who have supported them along the way. It is a day to celebrate milestones, and it is also a time to draw attention to the ongoing challenges of cancer survivorship, with the aim of promoting more resources, research, and legislation to improve cancer survivors’ quality of life.
It has become a beloved tradition for York Hospital’s Living Well Center to share this celebration of life with survivors, their friends and family, and YH providers and staff at annual gatherings of 100 or more people (the photo collage here shows YH providers and caregivers sharing smiles with patients during recent Survivor Day celebrations). This year is different in some ways, but not in the ways that count.
June of 2020 finds us unable to celebrate face-to-face, to laugh, cry, tell stories, and hug each other. Safety — for our patients, our caregivers, our friends and families — is paramount during the coronavirus pandemic, but the need to maintain physical distance cannot break bonds that have been created through shared pain, courage, strength of spirit, healing, and hope for the future.
Those bonds and that hope can still be celebrated within our hearts and minds and with closest family and friends — in our living rooms, at the beach, on a hike, or maybe while enjoying snacks or a take-out dinner from a favorite local eatery in the back yard.
Show us how you #CelebrateLife! Mark your calendar now and please join with us on Sunday, June 7 to celebrate National Cancer Survivors Day® together, while apart. If you visit the NCSD.org website you will find downloadable free fill-in-the-blank signs. We invite you to print a sign, add a personal message, take a photo holding the sign on Sunday and share it with York Hospital on social media so that we truly can celebrate life together!