Holly's Story

"I have vivid memories of my Gram wasting away..."

From your Guide, Terry Martin: I'd like to introduce Holly, a young girl who lost her grandmother to lung cancer. Her story is poignant and real, and for those who have been touched by the deadly effects of tobacco use, sadly familiar. Every year, tobacco kills more than 400,000 people in the United States, and globally, someone dies every 8 seconds from tobacco use. They leave behind loved ones - families, friends and colleagues.

Holly's lung cancer story comes to us via Voices Against Tobacco, a site dedicated to giving voice to those who have been lost to tobacco, as well as those who still struggle to quit. This site is a division of the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids

We've got to do all that we can to raise awareness about nicotine addiction, and help our kids see tobacco use for what it is -- a vicious killer in sheep's clothing. The only way to truly end the deadly cycle of this addiction is to convince our kids to never start smoking.

Submit your story to Voices Against Tobacco

Holly's Lung Cancer Story

From the time I was two until just before my 15th birthday, my Grandmother lived, and smoked three packs a day in my home. I have asthma, and even more painful, vivid memories of my Gram wasting away from a happy woman who loved sweets, to a sickly skeleton who didn't even have the appetite for a spoonful of ice-cream.

In my Gram's last months, she stopped walking, stopped eating, and stopped really doing anything on her own. It was my summer vacation, so I was at home, helping take care of her, helping her to the bathroom(she couldn't do that on her own either), and falling asleep in a bed across from her, listening to the rhythm of her oxygen machine. Did you know that it pumps about once per second in cycles of ten seconds? I do. Nine years later, at 23 years old, I still cannot forget that awful sound.

So why should you care about my Gram, who has been dead for nine years? Because, she represents millions of people who die from tobacco-related diseases every year throughout the world. She represents thousands who began smoking as kids, and thousands of kids who begin every day. Kids, who, like my Gram, were targeted and manipulated by Big Tobacco's lies.

You may have heard the stats. Each day in the U.S., 2000 kids become regular daily smokers, and the tobacco industry spend over $30 million dollars in marketing and promotions. One third of them will die prematurely from tobacco related disease. Let me assure you, having seen how lung cancer ravages and destroys the human body, this is not just another statistic.

Holly
Special thanks go out to Holly, for sharing her story with us here at About.com.