The NHS should scrap bell-ringing ceremonies celebrating the end of cancer treatment, because it is a “kick in the teeth” for those still suffering, a patient battling the disease has said.
The bell-ringing ritual at the end of chemotherapy or radiation has become common in hospitals and clinics nationwide in recent years.
Friends and family and staff clap and cheer as the patient reads out a poem before ringing a bell to show they have “beaten” the disease.
The ceremonies, often proudly shared by patients in online videos, originated in the US and now feature at around 200 UK hospitals.
But critics are complaining that the bells are a “divisive and cruel” reminder for incurable patients on wards that they will never get to ring one.
Jo Taylor, founder of campaign group After Breast Cancer Diagnosis, has called for the “brash” bells to be scrapped.
The mother-of-two, 50, has undergone 88 rounds of treatment since being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.
Writing in the British Medical Journal recently, Mrs Taylor, of Diggle, near Oldham, said: “It seems a modern-day phenomenon that everything has to be celebrated loudly and brashly.
“For those of us living with recurrent cancer who have little prospect of being cured, hearing this bell being rung is like a kick in the teeth.
“Living with recurrent breast cancer is hard. It feels as if the disease has one aim – it wants to kill the person it’s growing in.
“For those who are shouldering this burden it’s important that we avoid adding to it.
“I am sure that I am not the only person who has heard the end of treatment bell and left the unit in despair, weeping on the way home from treatment which we know will not cure us.
“People think it’s an encouraging thing to have a bell. I disagree, I think it’s divisive and cruel. For me, it just reminds me of my own mortality and that I will never get to ring it because I will never finish treatment.”
Mrs Taylor, who has a life expectancy of two to three years, points out that as many as 30 per cent of early stage patients who ring the bell when they finish treatment for primary breast cancer will, like her, develop secondary cancer in another part of the body.
She said: “As a friend said, she actually felt like she was tempting fate by ringing the bell. “It’s not the patients’ fault but people do need to be made aware that others may find it insensitive.
“There are many other patients like me out there and it’s surely time for chemotherapy and radiotherapy units who use these bells to rethink whether they are really a good idea.”
Mrs Taylor’s article struck a chord with a string of other incurable cancer patients. One responded online: “I hate the bells at my oncology unit. I find hearing it really difficult. Although I’m pleased for the person ringing it, I just hate knowing I’ll never beat cancer.”
Another said: “I honestly don’t understand why these are allowed. By all means celebrate but I really don’t think it should be within earshot of those of us that will never get to do so.”
Others have suggested that ward staff could instead quietly hand out certificates of completion. Oncologist Dr Greg Wilson, of Manchester’s Christie Hospital, one of Europe’s largest cancer treatment centres, also agreed with Mrs Taylor.
He said: “It’s unnecessary and insensitive to patients who will never ring the bell. Patients who complete their chemo can go and celebrate but the bell is unnecessary.”
A study of whether the bells are helpful or harmful was carried out by Dr Patrick Williams, from the University of Southern California, and involved 210 patients.
He concluded: “The bell worsens patients’ memories of treatment…. Ringing a bell on the final day of cancer treatment may be an example of a bad practice with good intentions.’
Charity Children with Cancer UK has a child ringing a bell on its logo. A spokesman said: “Many of the families we support view them as a symbol of hope and strength.
“Ringing the bell marks the end of what is often a long period of cancer treatment.”
The bells are distributed by End of Treatment Bells, a charity founded by Tracey Payton, from Manchester. She first saw the bells used when her daughter Emma, then eight, had proton beam therapy in 2013 in Oklahoma to treat a cancer of the cheekbone.
She was then treated at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, which installed the UK’s first bell for her to ring.
Mrs Payton, who has since raised over £40,000 on website JustGiving for the bells, declined to comment. But her friend Jane Cubbin, 44, whose son Josh, eight, has undergone cancer treatment at the same hospital, said: “Tracey feels genuinely sorry if anybody is distressed by it – that is not the intention of what these bells are about.
“To take the bells away would just be heartbreaking – they have brought joy and hope to so many since it came to the UK.”
Stephen Buckley, 72, of Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, rang a bell at Castle Hill Hospital to celebrate the end of his eight-month battle against prostate cancer. He said: “Ringing the end of treatment bell is something I’ve been looking forward to since day one. Every day I walked past it, I thought ‘I shall be ringing that bell off the wall soon’.
“On my last day, I definitely had mixed feelings; it felt strange to think I was having my last treatment but I was happy too; it’s all been five star, I cannot thank the NHS enough.”
The installation of the bell was the idea of Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust therapy radiographer, Lydia Dearing. She said: “We’ve had a lot of interest in the bell. A lot of people have asked if they can ring it and we often see our radiographers come to support the patients they have treated when it’s time for them to ring the bell.
“Patients can sometimes suffer side effects as a result of treatment, so for those who are going through a bit of a tough time it can give hope or help to remind them that there is an end in sight.
“It’s not for everyone but for many, and in particular those whose treatment has lasted a long time and maybe included surgery or chemotherapy, it signifies a significant milestone and what will hopefully be the start of their recovery.”