| All smokers will know what it's like once that little white | | | | lungs, breeding tumours, then don't stop smoking. If you |
| stick has a hold on you. The world and his wife will be | | | | don't mind that these tumours may spread to your |
| against you, telling you to stop smoking, complaining | | | | liver, bones or brain then continue your habit. |
| about the smell, pointing out the health risks. But what | | | | If you don't mind your family watch you go through the |
| do they know? Why would you want to miss out on | | | | immense pain that accompanies lung, liver, bone and |
| your social cigarette outside the pub with your mates? | | | | brain cancers then don't stop smoking. If you can live |
| After all, it hasn't hurt any of them. | | | | with the fact that if lung cancer from smoking travels |
| The fact that eighty per cent of lung cancer cases | | | | to your brain, you will go through periods where you |
| come from smoking cigarettes still leaves you with a | | | | don't recognise your own children then don't stop |
| twenty per cent chance of not getting it. Are you | | | | smoking. |
| willing to take that chance? Maybe you think you could | | | | If you don't mind the fact that brain cancer will bring |
| recognise the early symptoms and get it treated. Until | | | | about personality changes that can bring immeasurable |
| then, you're willing to risk it? Or give up as a new | | | | emotional pain for all your loved ones, then why quit? If |
| year's resolution? On your birthday? At Christmas? | | | | you think a couple of paracetemol will rid you of the |
| Maybe never? | | | | gnawing, continuous pain of bone cancer, persist in you |
| I watched my grandmother die a slow, painful death | | | | habit. |
| from lung cancer. Unable to breath properly for quite | | | | If your partner is happy to see you through a |
| some time, we had constantly pressured her to stop | | | | bronchoscopy, PET scan, CT scan and bone scans |
| smoking but she liked it. She said she didn't want to | | | | while they diagnose how far your cancer has spread, |
| give up, that the inevitable would never happen to her. | | | | then there is no need to stop smoking. Of course, they |
| The fact that she regularly coughed up blood she put | | | | will be there when you come round from surgery to |
| down to old age and firmly stuck her head in the sand | | | | remove tumours and they will be there if you ever |
| when it came to the thought of lung cancer. | | | | wish to tell them about your awake craniotomy |
| However, if you are one of the lucky twenty per cent | | | | surgery to remove the brain tumours. If you think they |
| who smoke their way through life without getting ill | | | | can sustain that sort of emotional turmoil, then why |
| then this won't affect you, will it? It may bring about the | | | | stop smoking? |
| death of a loved one through their passive smoking | | | | It's a known fact that lung cancer is one of the |
| around you but surely it's still your choice to smoke? | | | | deadliest cancers you can possibly get, that it is rarely |
| If you don't mind the difficulty of not being able to | | | | diagnosed until the advanced stages. It is also one that |
| breathe, if you don't mind coughing up blood, if you think | | | | easily spreads to other organs through the lymph |
| the loss of appetite will just make you slimmer then | | | | system, lodging in other organs and bones. These |
| don't stop smoking. The general fatigue will creep up | | | | cancers will bring sickness, extreme pain, confusion, |
| on you slowly and you'll get used to it - until it's too late | | | | depression - and that's just in your friends and family. |
| to do anything about. | | | | But hey, there's only a twenty per cent chance of that |
| If you don't mind the thick gunk that collects in your | | | | happening if you don't stop smoking so why carry on? |