There I was, sat in a waiting area for a radiotherapy planning scan, 3 weeks from diagnosis, and over to the side, across some café style partitions, a mere 15ft away at the cancer centre I attended, a bell was rung and everyone around me erupted into claps, and those with the person cheered and took photographs as souvenirs. It seemed to happen every 10 minutes. I didn't know what is was at first but as the truth dawned, sat there alone, it was all I could do not to burst into tears at the realisation I would never get to ring that bell.
Until that moment I had only cried when told my diagnosis while having to lay flat on an A&E trolley, and later on in a ward when I pulled the curtain around me and lost it for 20 minutes out of sheer frustration at being told I could not have the prostate taken out so I could be decatheterised (a urology houseman failed to tell me I could have it cored out in a TURP operation instead), and then again when I got home and saw my cats and after 8 days away said "Daddy's home" and immediately thought of the old Cliff Richard song where the next line is "...to stay".
Yes, I can be and am happy for others, God it's not as if I don't want people to be cured of this wretched disease which took my parents, both of whom I nursed across 4 years, an older brother, and will me, but even so isn't it a little insensitive to have it so close to where incurable/terminally-ill patients might sit as they receive palliative care? I don't know what other hospitals are like but the otherwise excellent one I went to needs a rethink.
Hi - My cancer is treatable but not curable and I've been on immunotherapy and a trial since Jan 2022. Treatment has been in two separate day units and none have had a bell. Or no one has rung it all the times I've been there.
But even if someone finishes a treatment, there's always the possibility it can come back. And how do you know it's been "cured"? It might not appear on a scan, but who's to say there's not minute undetectable amounts outwith the scope of the scan granularity? Is anyone ever cured of cancer, a question presented by my oncologist in the beginning. I have pondered this bell question and I don't think I could ever feel comfortable ringing the bell whichever side of the fence I was. Does that mean others shouldn't? Possibly not. On hearsay from what people post here, I think the bell is on the decline for the reasons you articulate.
A lot of treatable people aren't on palliative care - but that's another discussion.
Hi Steve
I agree with you. I think it is insensitive. I personally wouldn't want to ring that bell anyway. as Mmum says, who knows if a treatment is really 'finished'? Who can say if it has really been successful? Like you, I am one of the incurables. I've come to terms with it after a year of treatment which I agreed to, but I doubt will make any difference. Ho hum.....
Next time....wear headphones! Play them at the highest volume you can stand.
Many hospitals have stopped the bell ringing for this reason. I am so sorry this happened to you today.
I'm sorry that the bell ringing was every 10 minutes during your appointment. It must have felt like they were rubbing it in. I agree with Mmum - once you've had cancer, are you ever totally cured. My end of treatment CT showed no active cancer and my oncologist said it doesn't mean that it's not there though. I rang the bell after my last chemo session, more to celebrate the fact that I was finished the course, even though I am stage 4. A lovely champion once told me, not to focus on the stage, as she had seen people with more simple cancers and lower stages go quicker than those with incurable cancer. No one knows the stories of the bell ringers, we're assuming there's a smugness to it, which may not be the case. Best wishes for your treatment.
A x
Ugh, how awful, I am sorry this has happened to you. I remember reading about the introduction of bells a few years ago and wondering (this is before I had cancer) how I would feel if I encountered one. Fortunately I haven’t seen any evidence of one in my hospital. With the wonderful hindsight of a metastatic customer, I wonder how you can be declared cured anyway. It’s like when people ask me if I have been given the “all clear”. Does that actually happen? Perhaps people are told there is no evidence of current disease. People definitely complete treatment and are dispatched into the yonder without anyone looking for signs of disease. Definitely worth giving them some feedback.
Hi all,
Thank you for the replies, I appreciate it.
I don't mind curable patients having a bell, I'm sure it will be a huge psychological boost for them, even if it should be regarded as a cautionary one, as Mmum suggests.
But the siting of any bell needs more thought. The hospital I attended, and will doubtless go back to for more RT as pain relief (7 bone mets at diagnosis), should position it near the exit or in the clinic room where a review is done at the end of treatment instead of close to a waiting area. The radiotherapists were there to clap a patient they've got to know because they'd had 30+ zaps instead of my 5 palliative ones.
I may adopt the heaphone idea, but Anita Ward's Ring My Bell will be off the playlist!
Where's the north for you, Steve? I am from the north (of Watford) and have now lived more than half of my life in the north (Sco)
Thanks for the laugh!
Sorry to hear about the bone mets. I have not experienced this, but i have had chats with 2 people who have had radiotherapy for pain relief for their bone mets, and both have said that it really helped. I hope that is the case for you too, and hope it goes well. Do post again and let us know how you are getting on.
I posted about this about a year ago
I agree, it's highly insensitive to have people ringing bells in an area where people ate receiving palliative treatment.
Anyway it's tempting fate ringing a bell. Nobodys ever cured of cancer, there are always microscopic cancer cells lurkinging in the body, ready to come back at some later date.
Usually more aggressive as well.
Hi Harebelle
How are you getting on? Just wondering!
Candysmum
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