What is Celebrate Life?

Once a year, a special event takes place at each Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) hospital. Celebrate Life® commemorates patients who have reached their five-year anniversaries since beginning treatment.

The two-day celebration includes a welcome reception, a tree-planting ceremony, a formal ceremony, Hope Rounds^SM, and a luncheon party held on the grounds of each CTCA hospital.

During the tree-planting ceremony, we plant a tree onsite to honor the survivors. We also donate money to the hospital’s park district, which plants a tree for each survivor in one of its parks. In addition, we add each survivor’s name to a golden leaf on the Tree of Life in the hospital’s lobby.

The formal ceremony features speeches from survivors, uplifting messages from CTCA leaders and clinicians, and keynote addresses from guest speakers. During Hope Rounds^SM, survivors share their stories of healing and pass on hope to patients in the hospital who are actively fighting cancer.

At CTCA, when our survivors reach milestones in their cancer journey, we celebrate with them. The annual Celebrate Life® event is our way to honor their strength, determination and fighting spirit.

Each year’s event has a theme. Some themes have been “Laugh, Love, Live,” “Walking on Sunshine,” and “Some Kind of Wonderful.” The theme for Celebrate Life® 2009 is “How Sweet It Is!”