Outdoors comes inside for patients

Former cancer patient Lucy Bennett raised $10,000 for picture panels in Auckland Hospital's radiation department. Photo / Natalie Slade

Cancer survivor Lucy Bennett and her new, deeper singing voice have helped make radiation treatment a little more bearable for some patients at Auckland Hospital.

The 40-year-old Auckland drama teacher and former professional singer raised $10,000 to buy nine back-lit picture panels and have them installed on the ceiling above one of the hospital's radiation therapy machines.

In 2004, she was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer, a rare disease of the area behind the nose. She was treated with seven weeks of radiation therapy and three rounds of chemotherapy at the same time.

As part of the radiation treatment, a mask had to be fitted to her head and firmly fixed to the bed.

"I would lie and stare at dots in the ceiling tiles and imagine myself on a beach with sun beating down and beautiful blue skies," she recalls.

After recovering, she wanted to raise money to help head and neck cancer patients.

"I wanted to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to the magnificent specialists at Auckland Hospital who had helped me on the road to recovery."

The treatment damaged her salivary glands but her singing voice remained, although changed from soprano to bass.

A 20-person choir of friends, actors, dancers and singers - Lucy and the Sensations - began singing on Saturday mornings. With musicians from Long Bay and Avondale colleges, they put on a concert last December at Avondale, where Ms Bennett taught.

Ms Bennett said her cancer was gone and, on a year's leave from Long Bay College, she was going to Italy to study mask and clowning at a theatre school. Martin Johnston