Dying for a Fag - ?

[simongt]

Just learned that one of the GLWs aunts has about two days left due to advanced stomach cancer; she was a longtime smoker.
It set me thinking that in the last forty years, eight people who are / were family or close friends have died or are dying as a direct result of smoking or it being a major contributory factor to their demise.
I packed up in 1987 when I was 34 because it was too much faff, so all being well, I shouldn't be following these unfortunate folk.
But its still a very sobering thought.

 

[Profpointy]

Just learned that one of the GLWs aunts has about two days left due to advanced stomach cancer; she was a longtime smoker.
It set me thinking that in the last forty years, eight people who are / were family or close friends have died or are dying as a direct result of smoking or it being a major contributory factor to their demise.
I packed up in 1987 when I was 34 because it was too much faff, so all being well, I shouldn't be following these unfortunate folk.
But its still a very sobering thought.

I had an interview with a fag company. In the end I dropped out before the 2nd interview as I really couldn't in good conscience work for an industry which sells a product that kills half its customers. p

 

[MontyVeda]

My Dad gave up in his early 30s and died aged 80 of lung disease, which may or may not have been connected to smoking.

 

[ianrauk]

My dear mum died of lung, spine and brain cancer at the age of 53. She was a life long smoker.

 

[PaulSB]

I'm an ex-smoker. I used Nicotinell for a long time but haven't used these for 5-6 years. Emptying out a drawer I found a packet of Nicotinell jammed at the back. The temptation to have "just one" was enormous.

I didn't but I was very surprised by how strong the urge for nicotine still is.

 

[gbb]

My wife was a lifelong smoker. I was a lighter smoker but packed up at 50 maybe , I may still pay the price, who knows ?
My wife, I told her a couple years ago when I was frustrated at her still smoking....its going to get you one day.(to try to sober her into packing up)
And it has. Section of lung removed, two small tumors left behind.
Now she has brain lesions, the three largest treated with radiotherapy, two small ones left to monitor.
Now she has another small tumor on her lung,.

Shes fairly stoic and accepting (as much as someone can be in these circumstances)

The irony, the few people around us that do smoke...havnt packed up despite seeing what's happening with my wife....

It's human nature I guess, they (we) know the risks but for some it's either a case of.. it won't happen to ke or they just don't have the desire.. or strength to pack up (I know it took all my strength and then some, to actually stop, it was murder)

 

[Dogtrousers]

I lost a good friend, who was my partner in crime in my heavy drinking, chain-smoking days. I got out. He didn't.

 

[cyberknight]

Never touched em ,once I saw a picture of a smokers lung at school I vowed never to go near them

 

[Profpointy]

Thankfully it's a vice I've never taken up, even though I did have a bit of a cigar phase if I was out in a pub but realised it was becoming a habit so packed it in. Not being self righteous or anything but I just didn't get anything out of it apart from a slightly spinney head. Likewise various "herbal cigarettes" passed round in my student days didn't really do much for me either. I do drink quite a bit more beer than I should, albeit a bit less than when I was working away a lot when it crept up a lot. But as I say, luckily never got hooked on fags

 

[Kingfisher101]

My Dad died at 57 and he was a heavy drinker and smoker. My Mum died last month at 92 and she didn't drink or smoke...
All the rellies and friends I've had who have been heavy drinkers, smokers and drug takers are all long time dead now.

 

[mickle]

Smoking killed my ma, an otherwise very clever and sensible person, at the age of 64.

I smoked in the womb, passive smoked all my childhood (both parents would light up whenever we got in the car, and being Scotland i wasn't allowed to open a window!). I started smoking age 11 and was on 20 a day by age 16. I started on the roll ups in 1982 thinking that the faff of rolling would mean i smoked less. It did not. I tried giving up a dozen times but the drink always brought me back. And it was 'never a good time'. I didn't give up when my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, and i didn't give up when she died. I finally gave up 15 years ago, shortly after a friend killed himself. My reasoning; 'never a worse time'! I never looked back. Best decision I ever made. Shame it took me so long.

I calculated recently that I've spent more than £250,000 on booze, fags and other vices over the years, to say nothing of the time i wasted sitting around in pubs talking bollocks. farking stupid.

Also, my lung function is only 80% of what it should be. Undoubtedly all those fags left a lasting impression.

 

[tyred]

Just recently, someone I have known very well all my life was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at 62. He really was a very heavy smoker. I went to see him in hospital and seeing him struggling to breathe whilst coughing and coughing was not easy to watch.

I stopped about 11 years ago, aged 34. It just confirmed I had made the correct decision. Hopefully, I will avoid an ending like that.

For perspective, there were 4 brothers who used to run a sort of building business. They built the extension to my parents house years ago and my mum often got them to do bits and pieces. One of the four doesn't smoke. He is still alive and well at 88. The other three who did smoke all died in their sixties.

 

[raleighnut]

62 here, been smoking for 50 years. After breaking my Femur and the first 'intramedullary nail'* failed to fix it they extracted that and put a bigger one in they told me that maybe smoking had 'interfered' with healing so I stopped for 3 months.........................Never been so bored in all my life.
Smoking has been a 'coverup' for the pollution caused by car/lorry emissions for so long that it is not registered any longer................ you stop polluting the air and I might consider your views until then just leave us alone.

* the break had become infected during surgery so nothing to do with my smoking interfering with the healing process.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Mrs Tkk worked at a local Hospice for many years prior to retirement. She ran the " Breathlessness " clinic. Several of her patients were passive smokers, and one lady had asbestosis almost certainly as a result of washing her husband's contaminated overalls.

 

[dicko]

I started smoking when I was 16 and Fags were 1/6d for 20. I progressed to a pipe at 40 years old then cigars at 55. I quit in 2002 using Nicotine patches which worked extremely quickly I was off tobacco in three months. I have been checked for lung disease and the NHS say my lung capacity is fine and I have no likelihood of lung cancer.
I was lucky.