Once  they have told you have cancer, they give you your "premiums"--a beautiful, inch-and-a-half thick cook book and another slick 68-page book called "Eating Hints-- Before, During and After Cancer Treatment."  (Compliments of the U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Cancer Institute.)  The cook book gives you recipes on delicious meals to prepare when you have diarrhea, constipation, low white blood count, and other equally distasteful conditions. The other book provides amplifying information such as why your throat hurts like hell, how your feelings affect your appetite, mouth sores, vomiting, etc.  Of course, all of the advice includes avoiding alcohol.  Now this is like telling me to avoid one of the basic food groups.  They also say no carbonated beverages.  So much for beer.  At a certain point it became apparent I could no longer enjoy my preferred evening cocktails (Manhattans and Rum & Cokes) or wine with meals.  Booze began burning like molten lava, so I decided to seek a throat friendly cocktail and invent my own custom libation that might ease the pain. Thus was created:

The Amelia Island Moonbeam

2 oz dark rum (you can use light if you wish)
1 Tbsp real maple syrup (U.S. Grade A Dark Amber)
Mix them in an on-the-rocks glass and add ice cubes to the top.
Fill with milk (whatever you like from skim to whole)
Stir and garnish with ground nutmeg

 I found this drink quite pleasant, really smooth and it actually worked until the swallowing pain got so unbearable I had to eliminate any irritant.  As soon as the pain subsides, the rum returns.