One Good Memory: Nurse Brings Annual Tradition to Breast Cancer Patients
Key Takeaways:
- Moffitt Cancer Center nurse Sandy Santiago created an annual tea party to bring joy to breast cancer patients
- The event grew from about 15 attendees in 2019 to about 45 last year
- Patients bring loved ones for an evening focused on fun, games and connection rather than cancer treatment
Sandy Santiago, a nurse who has cared for breast cancer patients at Moffitt Cancer Center since 2010, was 16 when she watched her best friend lose her mother to breast cancer.
Santiago remembers the end of her illness being especially difficult. Her friend’s mother could no longer get out and do much, leaving Santiago wishing there had been an opportunity for the two of them to simply have fun together and make another good memory.
The experience stayed with her.
Santiago already knew she wanted to become a nurse, but watching someone she cared about go through breast cancer helped shape her path toward oncology.
Years later, that memory would also inspire a Moffitt tradition.
In 2019, Santiago and her colleagues were brainstorming ways to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month when she raised her hand with an idea.
What about a party?
Not an educational session. Not another conversation about treatment options, clinical trials or what comes next. Santiago wanted patients to come to Moffitt with a friend, spouse, caregiver or other loved one and, for one evening, simply enjoy themselves.
“I wanted them to have one good, fun memory of coming to Moffitt in their journey,” Santiago said.
That idea became Moffitt’s annual Breast Cancer Patient Tea Party.
Santiago, now a breast triage nurse, wanted the evening to feel different from the many other visits patients make to the cancer center.
“I hope that they actually forget that they’re there because they have breast cancer,” she said. “You kind of want to take that weight off of them.”
From Work Neighbors to Tea Party Sidekicks
Santiago hasn’t done it alone.
Susan Vallan has been by Santiago’s side nearly from the beginning. The two nurses have worked together for years and affectionately call each other “neighbor,” a nickname that dates back to when their desks sat back-to-back in Moffitt’s first breast clinic.
Santiago and Vallan are the heart and soul of Moffitt’s breast cancer patient tea party.
When the clinic later moved to the Moffitt McKinley Outpatient Center, they asked to sit next to each other again.
“We were just sidekicks, worked right side by side,” Santiago said.
That relationship carried over to the tea party. Vallan became Santiago’s right hand, helping collect donations, plan games and bring the event to life each year.
Their personalities have shaped it, too.
Both love trivia, so naturally, trivia became part of the party. On the night of the event, they serve as emcees, cracking jokes, playing games and even dancing with their guests.
A Party That Keeps Growing
The first tea party was held in a conference room at McKinley with a Mad Hatter theme. Patients decorated hats, walked a runway, played games and enjoyed food together.
About 15 people attended.
Patients and their loved ones enjoy food and games at the 2026 breast cancer patient tea party.
Since then, the event has grown enough to move into the McKinley lobby, with about 45 people attending this year. Themes have changed, games have been added and some familiar faces continue to return.
Santiago says one patient hasn’t missed the tea party in six or seven years.
Last year, another patient happened to walk through the lobby after finishing treatment and asked what was happening. She hadn’t RSVP’d, but Santiago invited her to stay.
The woman left, changed clothes and came back for the party.
Later that evening, Santiago pulled a raffle ticket for the night’s biggest prize.
It belonged to her.
“I walked up to her, I was like, ‘This is totally meant to be. You were meant to stay here tonight,’” Santiago recalled.
Gifts donated by Breast Department staff are collected for patients attending the annual breast cancer tea party.
The gifts and prizes are another part of what makes the night special. Nurses, physicians, medical assistants, social workers and other Breast Department team members donate gift cards, baskets and other items for patients and their guests. Outside volunteers have contributed handmade quilts
Santiago holds a few gifts back until the end of the night so she can ask one final question: Who hasn’t received something?
Her goal is for no one to leave empty-handed.
That includes the person sitting beside the patient.
“They go through a lot, and so does that person probably sitting next to them at the table,” Santiago said.
For a few hours, that person doesn’t have to be the one driving to an appointment or helping a loved one through treatment. They get to have fun, too.
‘We Did It’
At the end of the night, the games stop, the prizes have been handed out and patients begin making their way home.
That’s when some of Santiago’s favorite moments happen.
Patients often wait to speak with her and Vallan before leaving. Some share pieces of their cancer journey. Others give them a hug or simply say thank you.
Then Santiago gets in her car.
For the past few years, she said she has found herself getting emotional on the drive home.
“We did it,” she said. “They’re happy, they’re fed, they had a good time.”
For Santiago, those moments bring her back to why she became a nurse.
“You were trying to help somebody in some fashion,” she said. “I think that this does mentally help them for one evening.”
Even a hurricane couldn’t stop the tradition. When severe weather forced the team to cancel one year’s October event, Santiago was determined to reschedule. The tea party returned that December with a holiday theme.
But its purpose hasn’t changed since Santiago first raised her hand in 2019.
“Let’s celebrate them,” she said. “Let them have one fond memory of being here and having a good time.
For the nurse who wanted patients to have one good memory at Moffitt, the tea party has created some of her favorite memories, too.
“It’s my favorite day of the year here at Moffitt,” Santiago said.
