| I have used the statement, "I am dying for a | | | | matter what. I decided that I would quit for good |
| cigarette", hundreds of times during the years | | | | this time because I could. And I did. |
| that I fed my nicotine addiction. And at the time | | | | However, three years after I quit smoking I was |
| that I made those statements I believed that if I | | | | diagnosed with smoking induced lung cancer and |
| did not get a smoke or a nicotine fix I actually | | | | had to have my left lung removed. I was very |
| would expire by some terrible unknown, | | | | fortunate because they got all of the cancer by |
| unexplainable, mind blowing phenomenon. Or, at | | | | removing the entire lung. I did not have to have |
| the least, I would do some unlawful act, such as | | | | chemotherapy or radiation treatments. I almost |
| killing someone, that it would end my life and | | | | lost my life and fulfilled the question, Dying for a |
| existence as I knew it at that time. Little did I | | | | Cigarette? |
| know that the statement, dying for a Cigarette, | | | | Tobacco and lung cancer have had a profound |
| would have such a traumatic and dramatic effect | | | | effect on my life. Use of tobacco caused me to |
| on me and my life. | | | | have lung cancer. But I have not let either, |
| Eventually after over twenty years of smoking | | | | tobacco or lung cancer, completely define my life. |
| and a number of attempts to quit smoking I was | | | | And you do not have to either. |
| finally successful. In 1980 I quit smoking, cold | | | | March 28, 2010, I celebrated my 70th birthday. |
| turkey. This time the quit was not as hard as I | | | | Thirty years after I quit smoking I am still doing |
| had made all of the former attempts to quit. | | | | well. There is life after tobacco use and I am living |
| Notice I use the term "I made" because that is | | | | proof that quitting smoking can make a difference |
| the way it was. In my earlier attempts to quit I | | | | in your life and well being. |
| was convinced that it would be hard and it was | | | | If you think that you can quit smoking take my |
| because I believed it would be. In my final and last | | | | word for it you can if you believe that you can. |
| attempt I told myself that I could do this no | | | | |