Cancer care providers from The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing, Central Maine Medical Center and Lakes Region Oncology Nursing Society will host a celebration of life on National Cancer Survivors Day, Sunday, June 2 from Noon – 3 p.m. at the Dempsey Center, 29 Lowell Street, Lewiston. The event is free and open to cancer survivors, caregivers and loved ones.

A keynote presentation from international speaker, writer, comedienne and ovarian cancer survivor, Cathy Kidman will highlight the afternoon. Less than two months after her diagnosis and surgery, she fulfilled a long-time dream and began taking stand-up comedy classes. Funny and inspirational, she will share stories from her stand-up experience and discuss how focusing on writing comedy helped her through post-treatment depression and started her on the path to wellness. Her biggest lessons: there is no right way to live with cancer, and heroic survivorship is overrated.

Thousands of people around the world will observe the 26th annual National Cancer Survivors Day. Hundreds of communities across the U.S. and abroad will hold celebrations to honor cancer survivors and show that there is life after a cancer diagnosis – and it’s worth celebrating. It is the one day each year that we pause to honor everyone who is living with a history of cancer – including America’s nearly 14 million cancer survivors. “A ‘survivor’ is anyone living with a history of cancer – from the moment of diagnosis through the remainder of life,” according to the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation. MORE