Woman who completed radiation for breast cancer rings ‘cancer-free bell’ so hard she breaks it

HOUSTON, Texas - A Texas woman who finished her radiation treatment for breast cancer on Monday rang the "cancer-free bell" so enthusiastically that she broke it.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I broke the bell!’ I thought you know, I didn’t think I had any strength left in me, but obviously I do!” said Darla Jaye, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in February and began radiation at the end of May. 

She said the staff at Harris Health System in Houston, where she received her treatment, called her Tuesday and told her they thought it was the funniest thing. 

Jaye said she’s thrilled that that part of the treatment is over. 

But her journey to the completion of her radiation began with fear. She said she was “scared to death.” 

“When you hear the words, ‘You have cancer,’ the first thing you think of is, ‘Am I going to die?’ The second thing you think of is, ‘What am I going to go through?’” she said. “I remember going to my first radiation treatment and I was so scared that I was laying on the table before I had the first radiation, and tears were rolling down my face and I thought, ‘How am I ever going to get through this?’”

“I never imagined that I would make it through those 30 treatments and be able to ring that bell, so yesterday, when I rang that bell, I was celebrating that I was alive and that I was essentially done for now,” she said. 

She credits Harris Health System for “saving my life!”

“I was so excited and then I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I broke equipment!'” Jaye said. 

This story was reported from Los Angeles.