RINGING THE BELL

“MD Anderson’s Cancer Centers radiation treatment facilities have all the bells and whistles — with emphasis on the bells.

Department of Radiation Oncology faculty and staff used their expertise and the latest technology to treat more than 7,000 cancer patients last year.

When their treatment was completed, many of those patients celebrated by ringing a bell at MD Anderson’s centers on the main campus, in the Greater Houston area and in Albuquerque, N.M.

The now-widespread tradition was introduced in 1996 at MD Anderson when U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Irve Le Moyne, a patient with head and neck cancer, installed a brass bell at the main campus Radiation Treatment Center. (Admiral Le Moyne told his doctor that he planned to follow a Navy tradition of ringing a bell to signify “when the job was done.”) Patients who finish treatment at MD Anderson’s Proton Therapy Center make a bit louder noise by banging a gong to symbolize the restoration of balance, harmony and life energy.” (MD Anderson)

‘Ringing out
Ring this bell
Three times well
Its toll to clearly say,
My treatment’s done
This course is run
And I am on my way!’
Irve Le Moyne ?
(These bells are now in hospitals all over the USA)

My first thought after reading this was that we need a Brass Bell to ring when a person steps out of the baptismal water and/or filled with the Holy Spirit. Ring it three times to say: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. ‘My treatment’s done, this course is run and I am on my way!’

“So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything that I have taught you, and I will be with you always, even until the end of this age.” Jesus