DPH celebrates Great American Smokeout; profiles throat cancer survivor
12/10/2014
Tobacco claims the lives of more than 11,000 Georgians each year, with more than $5 billion dollars in direct health care costs and indirect costs such as lost wages. Furthermore, tobacco users die on average 10 years earlier than non-tobacco users. Tobacco use and second hand smoke also cause lung and throat cancer, stroke, heart attack, diabetes or preterm birth.
Last moth, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) joined the American Cancer Society in celebrating the Great American Smokeout (GASO) and helping Georgians find support in kicking their tobacco habit for good. Held every third Thursday in November, GASO encourages smokers to quit that day or use the day to make a plan to quit during the next two weeks.
Each year during GASO, former smokers share their success stories with those working to stop their tobacco use. One Georgia citizen bravely sharing her story this year is Greater Atlanta Voice Masters’ president, Janice Hayes.
At age 62, Hayes has firsthand experience with the debilitating consequences of smoking. She smoked as a teenager and puffed on cigarettes for 35 years. Her father smoked, which made it easy to steal cigarettes from his pack and hide her secret, she says. Like many other teens, smoking began as an innocent habit, but quickly evolved into a problem she battled into adulthood.
Hayes’ smoking habit reflected the path many adult smokers follow according to national statistics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites that most adult smokers begin smoking as teenagers. Data from DPH indicates positive progress in reducing teenage tobacco use in Georgia during recent years. Rates of youth who have used any form of tobacco have fallen over the last decade from 26.1 percent in 2003 to 19.4 percent in 2013.
Hayes agrees that keeping youth from starting to smoke is the strongest prevention strategy when working to promote more positive health decisions among the state’s younger generation.
“When I look back now, it was a stupid decision to ever pick up cigarettes and smoke,” said Hayes. “My parents did not approve, and I hid my smoking as a teenager from them. Unlike today, we didn’t have the education and warning labels on cigarette packs.”
After years of smoking, the impact on Hayes’ health became apparent after discovering the cause of her persistent struggle with laryngitis.
“I had laryngitis that didn’t go away,” said Hayes. “It was off and on for years and my voice was very hoarse. My doctors suspected that I had cancer and eventually found a tumor on the back of my right vocal cord, which was diagnosed as laryngeal cancer, or throat cancer. I had a full laryngectomy to surgically remove my larynx.”
Hayes has a voice prosthesis that helps her to speak and hear the sound of her own voice. After undergoing her laryngectomy, Hayes had to learn how to breathe, swallow and talk again.
After rising above her battle with throat cancer, Hayes has found a new passion for supporting laryngectomy patients as a board member of the International Association of Laryngectomy. Hayes also uses her personal success story in her position as president of Greater Atlanta Voice Masters, a local support group serving the needs of laryngectomees in the Atlanta area with information, training and fellowship.
Now that she lives cancer free, Hayes has fostered the courage to counsel former smokers and laryngectomees.
“Smoking is bad and it kills,” said Hayes. “I wish I had never smoked. I have regained my voice with modern technology and science. I am not as scared as I used to be because I believe every day is a gift.”
Help is available for all smokers in Georgia who are ready or need help to quit tobacco use. Call the Georgia Tobacco Quitline for free, confidential and effective cessation services 24/7 at 1-877-270-STOP (7867). Quitline counselors are trained to assist Georgians, 13 and older, with quitting smoking and all forms of tobacco, including electronic cigarettes or other electronic nicotine delivery devices.