JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It hangs there silently in the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute.
Over 8 feet tall.
A bell, quietly waiting for its time to chime.
To signal the end of a journey.
That moment came Thursday for a patient who had a special connection to the bell’s home.
Russ Armistead once served as the CEO of UF Health Jacksonville and was on the board of the Proton Therapy Institute.
But for the last six weeks, he joined the more than 11,000 cancer patients to be treated by the cutting-edge technology at the institute.
“I walked back in like, ‘Oh, wow. This is different,’” Armistead said. “In one sense, because I’ve spent a fair amount of time here, this place kind of feels like home.”
At 77 years old Armistead was diagnosed with melanoma on his face and his neck.
“Unfortunately, a diagnosis of melanoma is a very serious one,” radiation oncologist Curtis Bryant said. “It has a potential of coming back wherever it was originally treated. We use radiation to reduce the risk of it coming back again, and in this case, he needed it. It will help him to reduce his risk of the cancer returning.”
So Armistead put his work at UF Health to the test and underwent proton therapy as a more precise method of battling cancer. He strapped a mask on his face and for four minutes each day, he received direct treatment directed at his face and neck.
“I would sometimes be laying on the table and remember some of the videos that we would see at board meetings,” Armistead said.
After 30 days of treatment over the course of six weeks, Armistead received his last treatment Thursday.
“Kind of like an exhale,” Armistead said. “This is the last one of these I think I’m gonna have, so it’s kind of another chapter closed.”
After his treatment, Armistead rang the bell, like so many patients before him.
A sound of hope for the man who’d helped to build the very program that treated him.