The tribe has spoken: Survivor winner Ethan Zohn is ready to wed the love of his life.

Zohn, 41, is engaged to New York City interior designer Lisa Heywood, 47, the couple tell PEOPLE exclusively.

Get push notifications with news, features and more.

“This is the reason I survived cancer twice … to meet Lisa and start a beautiful and healthy new life together,” says Zohn, who was first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2009 but is now cancer-free after receiving a stem-cell transplant from his brother in 2013.

The former soccer player and Heywood dated for two years after meeting at a Clinton Global Initiative charity event. Zohn, who competed in Survivor: Africa, Survivor: All Stars and The Amazing Race, proposed to his fiancée on the dock of their new lake house in New Hampshire.

Heywood’s new bling holds a special significance: Zohn’s father died from cancer when he was just 14 years old, and he popped the question with the diamond his dad gave his mother – along with a new setting that Zohn designed himself.

RELATED VIDEO: Get a Tour of Jeff Probst’s ‘Spectacular’ Pad