Survivors Day

Today is National Cancer Survivors Day.

On its website, The National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation asks the question, Who is a Cancer Survivor? This is their answer:

The National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation defines a "survivor" as anyone living with a history of cancer – from the moment of diagnosis through the remainder of life. National Cancer Survivors Day affords your community an opportunity to demonstrate that it has an active, productive cancer survivor population.

So that makes me, and anyone else who has received The Diagnosis, a survivor.

A couple of months ago, I wrote about a column that Lymphoma Rock Star Betsy de Parry had written about the term "survivor." She doesn't like it -- she thinks sometimes it makes cancer the defining thing about her, and she knows there is so much more to her than that. I agree with her, at least sometimes. But I also know that there are days when "survivor" is a badge of honor.

The LiveStrong Foundation and Stand Up 2 Cancer are asking survivors to "donate their Facebook status" for the day by sending a  message to cancer by saying something like "I am a survivor. Cancer, you do not define me."

It's kind of nice to think about what you'd want to say to cancer. For some survivors, I'm sure it's a hindsight message -- "Cancer, I kicked your ass!" And for others of us who are still in the fight, the message will be different.

Survivors, what will your message be?