Celebrating a job well done
Throughout history, a bell has been used for many different things. The oldest bell discovered was created nearly five thousand years ago, and ever since then humankind has come up with all sorts of uses and symbolisms for them.
Musical bells, liberty bells, church bells, and even jingle bells. It seems like such a common object with so many different versatile meanings.
Bells are used in cancer treatment to help signify the transition a patient goes
through when they are declared to be in remission. When a Sky Lake’s Cancer Treatment Center patient gets this news from their care team, they are invited to ring a bell. This is perhaps one of the most important uses of a bell, when a cancer patient becomes a survivor and gets to ring the bell.
Bells to celebrate important events
TV Shows such as the Red Band Society have shown how big of a deal this tradition is for cancer treatment patients, such as Malissa, but they don’t talk about its origins.
There are many theories about where the tradition of ringing a bell for an accomplishment originated. Many people believe that it likely originated in
China, where large bronze bells were used to signal important events, before spreading across Asia and into Europe. Others believe the tradition started in Greece, where the ringing of the bell signified the start of a game or an event, the start of something good.
The origin of cancer patients ringing bells is very well-documented.
Thirty years ago, Irve Le Moyne—a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy—decided to follow a tradition from his time in the Navy of ringing a bell to signify when a job was done.
The brass bell Le Moyne used was donated and mounted on the wall of the MD Anderson Radiation Treatment Center and Le Moyne’s Navy tradition has since spread around the world, including to right here at Sky Lakes.
Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center is currently creating a new bell wall
and is excited for more cancer survivors to celebrate locally. When patients reach a milestone in their treatment journey like Admiral Le Moyne did, ringing the bell can bring them a sense of joy because they completed something that was hard. Sky Lakes believes in the value of supporting patients by celebrating the successes in their journey.
Bronwyn Hoffman-Ingram 