The end of the end of cancer treatment: «Touching the bell is life; That is: there is light and strength »

The history of the bell that in some places calls ‘of courage’ was born several decades ago in a center of Houston, where Admiral Irve Le Moyne was a cancer. When he finished his treatment, he gave the hospital La Campana of his ship. It was installed in the garden, and many patients played when they left. Thus was born a very widespread practice in the United States and Canada, and that brought to Spain Miriam Segura, a young Spanish cancer patient with 31 years, who was diagnosed at the Princess Margaret hospital in Toronto, where he heard this bell for the first time.

The bell repique woke up in those who listened to it positive sensations: hope, joy and strength. Miriam returned to Spain to continue her treatment and wanted to import this initiative. The Spanish Association against Cancer took the idea to the flight: it put the first on December 19, 2018 at the Costa del Sol Hospital, and has been responsible for extending it to health centers throughout Spain. The clinician’s radiotherapy service is the first to install this entity in a public hospital in the region.

Miriam Segura told how his experience was when he heard that tañido: “The first time I witnessed it, with that way and that healing poison touring my veins, I was very excited and cried a lot too.” The disease won the battle, but his mother continued with his initiative, and a few days ago, on February 18, he went to the premiere of which he settled in the clinician, and heard a memory touching her with enthusiasm.

The whole service is overturned with the initiative: from his boss, Manuel Gonzalo Vázquez, who met the bell “in the Anderson in Madrid, and I have seen that patients help them a lot.” In fact, there is a whole ritual that surrounds this event: since someone shouts “bell!” until it sounds. «Normally, patients already warn you the day before the treatment end; As soon as the first touch is heard, we all go out to applaud. And to those in the waiting room, they are very excited. There is no lack of emotion, more or less contained, the family photo – because “of so much coming, we end up being that, a family,” recalls Alicia, coordinator nurse in this unit – and a diploma that is given to the patient who leaves. “It’s like saving one more stone along the way, a cycle is passed,” concludes Alicia.

I remember advanced his last visit to radiotherapy in the morning to be able to release the bell. “For me it was so exciting and so beautiful …” he learned about Miriam’s story and his dream of bringing this exciting tradition “a few days before; And of course, to be able to touch it with that light and that hope that gives us was something spectacular ». The tañía so strong that “I feared I was going to break it,” he smiles. His summary cannot be more graphic: «Touching there is life; That is: ‘I have finished, I’m cured.’ It is a force, satisfaction ».

The design of the bell is from Miriam, who also left a poem that can be read when touching it. A future message for all who wait for their time to sound, to “leave everything bad behind”, as evokes memory. Their sound tells them that “from now on, we are on the right path, that everything is going well, that there will be a second chance.” And to those who are in treatment, he reminds them that there is one day less to finish it, which is another date that crosses the calendar.

In such delicate moments, human heat is finally what is most appreciated. «When you diagnose something like that, you spend months of uploads and declines of morals; It’s hard but you always have to be there. You have to be with the most positive attitude possible, with the family, helping you with the sport, and with the medical team ». It is that moment of vulnerability of the human being that makes the sound of a bell cause a smile and turn a light at the end of the tunnel.