ASHLAND – With tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, Pamela Reynolds became the first patient to ring the newly-installed bell at The University Hospitals Seidman Cancer and Infusion Center at Samaritan Medical Center in Ashland Wednesday.
As the sound of the bell rang through the hallways and rooms where Reynolds underwent chemotherapy for stage II breast cancer, the nurses and family members who gathered around Reynolds clapped and cheered. Also present were officials from Samaritan, Ashland County Cancer Association Executive Director Angela Woodward and members of the media.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Reynolds, 52, of Ashland. “It’s been a long five months, so I’m glad.”
The bell offered Reynolds a tangible way of marking a significant milestone, and she hopes the instrument will serve as a symbol of hope for future patients who receive care at the center for years to come.
Without Reynolds, there would be no bell for those future patients to ring.
That’s because about halfway through her infusion treatments, when a nurse mentioned to Reynolds that it was another patient’s last day of treatment, Reynolds asked the simple question, “Where’s the bell?”
The nurse replied that there was no bell. While infusion center staff had asked for a bell to be installed, they had not been able to secure one.
“I said, ‘Well, there’s going to be a bell before I leave, because I’m ringing a bell,'” Reynolds said. “I was at two other Seidman Infusion Centers and they had bells, but this one didn’t, and this is where my treatment was.”
Reynolds went home and posted on Facebook, where she had been providing friends with updates on what she prefers to call not a “cancer journey” but an “adventure.”
“I have 8 more infusions to go. I started on February 14th and will be done on July 17th,” she wrote. “Today was another patient’s last infusion. But this place has NO BELL to ring on your last day.”
Reynolds went on to describe what the bell meant to her.
“Accomplishing chemotherapy is a huge deal,” she wrote. “I know it is for me because I have thought about throwing in the towel many times. I get frustrated with all the appointments and doctors and travel time. But I keep chugging along week by week. So who is going to help me figure out how to get a bell in here?”
Through a series of “shares,” Joe Lyons of Ashland County Pictures forwarded the Facebook post to the Communication and Development team at UH Samaritan. Within days, an employee’s relative donated a Navy ship’s bell for use at the infusion center.
Another employee’s relative, who had himself been touched by cancer, volunteered to make a custom plaque that will soon be added to the wall where the bell was installed Wednesday, just in time for Reynolds to ring after her final round of chemotherapy.
Reynolds knows her “adventure” is far from over. She has an appointment to see a surgeon later this month, and she expects to undergo radiation followed by several years of drug therapy.
It’s a scary time, but Reynolds is facing down her fears and fighting with the same energy with which she fought for the bell.
“My mom had breast cancer, and she passed away at the age of 34. I was nine years old,” Reynolds said. “This was always my biggest fear, and it came true. So I have to fight it.”
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