My friend, MaryAnn Freeman, recently died from lung cancer. MaryAnn put up an amazingly long six-year fight. The cancer spread to her brain and she went through all sorts of treatments including laser and chemo. She spent 80 days in Hospice care at the end.
My sister was in high school with MaryAnn and she has been in my life for 38 years. I was the little sister, then a friend. I saw her with her children and I have seen her children grow up. She left behind her husband, family and friends. She was 56 when she died. I loved her and I will miss her always.
MaryAnn smoked. She smoked as long as I knew her, though she quit the minute she was diagnosed. But it was too late.
Why do people still smoke? I just read these statistics from the March/April issue of Pink Magazine: “Cigarette smoking accounts for nearly 440,000 deaths each year… Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women and has been for 15 years, killing more women annually than breast, ovarian and cervical cancer combined. And 80 percent of women diagnosed with lung cancer have a smoking history.”
The article also announced that R.J. Reynolds has a new chic Camel No.9 cigarette that is a thinly veiled attempt to entice young women to start smoking. They claim the product is aimed at adult smokers (So, that’s ok?) but the ads they started running, show the sleek black box with a hot pink or teal border…Now, who do you think that will appeal to? They have discontinued the ads because of the response of public health groups, but will continue selling the product.
We have to reach children and teen-agers with the right messages! Stop them before they start! This is what I want to do. I want to think of ways to keep young people from starting to smoke in the first place.
Young girls smoke to keep their weight down. How about teaching them to exercise and eat in a healthy way to keep their weight down?
Maybe we can offer young boys alternatives to smoking, to combat the nervousness and insecurities that make them pick up that first cigarette.
Children imitate. We all know that. We have a responsibility to take care of the children–all the children.
I am looking for any and all ideas to help our youth. Join me. Let’s stop this ridiculously, insane way people are choosing to live and die.
Yes, it is their business, but they are leaving people behind who loved them.
And miss them.
Diana Fletcher 