Cancer survivors at Basildon Hospital can now celebrate their remission with a bell ringing ceremony.

Ada Emerson, advanced health care assistant on the haematology day unit, contacted the national charity End of Treatment Bell which aims to place bells into hospitals for children and adults with cancer to ring after their treatment.

Ada said: “It’s a way of patients saying they have come through a battle and it makes the moment when they are ready to leave more special.”

One of the first patients to ring the bell, Patricia Corben, 61, who was diagnosed with Non-Hodkin’s Lymphoma, said a fond farewell to staff after celebrating her remission.

She has now moved from Billericay to live on a farm in south Wales with her partner and their collie dogs.

She said: “The care here has been terrific.

“Words can’t say how good it has been, and this is a nice ending to it.”

Yvette Diaz, sister at the hospital, said: “We see what patients and their loved ones go through.

“Before when people ended treatment we would usually sing a song and give them a cuddle.

“We wanted to add something visual and symbolic to the moment.”