When I met Cheryl in December of 2003, she'd been diagnosed with stage IV small cell lung cancer a month before. Inoperable and advanced, the prognosis was not good.

It was Cheryl's fervent wish to bring something good out of something so bad that drove her to open the door to her personal life and write about her struggle with the cancer that would eventually kill her. She wanted to help you, dear reader, avoid the pain and heart ache she and her loved ones were forced to endure by sharing the horrible reality that years of smoking had brought her to.

Cheryl ultimately wrote two accounts detailing her battle with lung cancer before we lost her on June 30th of 2005. Thousands of people have read her stories over the years, many of whom have gone on to quit smoking for good with the help of the support forum here at About.com Smoking Cessation.

The Healing World -- Cheryl's Story, Part Two

Cigarette smoking is directly responsible for 87 percent of lung cancer cases in the United States each year, claiming upwards of 158,000 lives of American men and women. Please read Cheryl's story and take her words to heart. What happened to her could happen to any of us. Smoking is a deadly habit, and it will kill you, given the chance.

Lung Cancer Information

• All About Lung Cancer

• Am I at Risk for Lung Cancer?

• Smoking and Cancer: U.S. Statistics

_{Photo © Stockxpert}

Finding True Freedom From Nicotine Addiction

If there is a golden rule about quitting smoking, it is this:

Smoking cessation is a process of gradual release over time.

As much as we'd all love to be able to quit smoking and be done with it in a week or two, it doesn't work like that.

We spent years building up associations to our smoking habit, and it takes time to undo them. Not only that, if we are to truly break the chains that bind us to nicotine addiction, we must change our relationship with smoking.

A thoughtful discussion about the mental shifts we go through when we quit smoking is taking place now at the About.com Smoking Cessation support forum:

• Fear of Relapse

I invite you to read this thread and join the conversation.

True freedom is a state of mind.

• Will I Miss Smoking Forever?

Change your mind about what smoking means to you, and you will find your freedom.

Take The Quit Smoking Monday Pledge

Healthy Monday encourages us to think of every Monday as a day that we can begin work anew on goals that we have for ourselves. If you're still smoking, put your cigarettes down and get started on your quit program today.

We all have the ability to quit smoking successfully, and we all deserve a life that is free of addiction. Honor your life by choosing Monday as the day to start and reinforce your quit program.

You can quit smoking ... and we’re here to help you, one simple Monday at a time.

_{Image © healthymonday.org}

For a lot of us, the habit of smoking was so overpowering, so enslaving, that breaking free of it brings on a re-birth of sorts. We emerge from the ashes of an addiction that held most of us prisoner for decades changed, often in profound ways.

Goodbye Letters

Writing our feelings out can be cathartic and therapeutic, and members of our support forum here at About.com Smoking Cessation have created some powerful messages to this effect. I've devoted an entire category to their writings.

Have a great, smoke free day!

_{Image © Stockxpert}

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, emphysema affects over 2 million Americans, the majority of whom are 50 years old and over.

Former Guide to About.com Smoking Cessation, Christine Rowley suffered from emphysema and wrote this poignant account of what it is like to live with this disease:

Why You Don't Want Emphysema

Emphysema is a slow killer, progressing gradually over a period of many years. The damage done to the lungs with emphysema is irreversible, but if a person stops smoking early on in the disease, it may be possible to arrest further development and improve one's quality of life.

More:

• Emphysema Causes and Symptoms

• Emphysema Facts and Statistics

• Emphysema Photo Gallery

_{Illustration courtesy of A.D.A.M.}