Children who've completed their final cancer treatment walk to the brass ship's bell on the wall at St. Jude Affiliate Clinic at Novant Health Hemby Children's Hospital in Charlotte. They reach for the ribbon – in a color they've chosen – and clang the bell to celebrate their milestone.
Staff members line the hallway and shower the child with confetti. Then hugs. Relatives and friends take photos. Tears and smiles spread like wildfire.
The sweet ring-the-bell tradition symbolizes hope, and culminates a family's arduous journey that often stretches for months. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time of recognition of a disease that in 2017 struck more than 10,000 children 14 and under nationwide.
To a child, treatment can seem like it's this marathon and they don't know when it's going to end. That's why the pediatric hematologists and oncologists at the St. Jude Affiliate Clinic celebrate each child and how strong and resilient they have been.
The celebratory bell-ringing happens about every five weeks or so.
Katy Wind, a Novant Health child life specialist at the clinic. Children receiving treatment pass by it during every visit and quickly learn to anticipate their victorious moment with it.
The Novant Health pediatric cancer clinic in Charlotte is the only St. Jude Children's Research Hospital affiliate in the Carolinas. It is one of just three nationwide to take part in clinical trials with both St. Jude and the Children's Oncology Group. That means world-class care is available closer to home.
