LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: PASS THIS MESSAGE ON…YOU COULD SAVE A LIFE
after you're gone they won't understand
December, 2000
There are only five more shopping days to Christmas and I am writing from a thoracic surgery ward. Between each line, I watch helplessly as my love struggles valiantly to survive. Judy is recovering from a pneumonectomy (lung removal). During the surgery, her vocal cord was paralyzed. No longer will I, our girls, or grandchildren hear familiar words of love and encouragement from this special lady.
Christmas will be uncharacteristically quiet this year, and it will be lonely. Our family understands that barring a miracle, this will be Judys last. Yet hugs and kisses will be in short supply because in her weakened condition, catching a germ or virus could end things too quickly. Suddenly, every moment is preciousbeyond anything either of us could have imagined. The experience has left us with a heightened respect for life. Never again will we take the dawn of a new day or the presence of loved ones for granted. Ironically, six months prior to being diagnosed with lung cancer, Judy had finally managed to give up smoking.
Lung cancer is in large part, a smokers disease. Addicts continue killing themselves and damaging the health of innocent loved ones who have no choice in the matter. Denial allows smokers to dismiss their addiction as just another filthy habit. But playing Russian roulette with life makes no sensethe cost is much too high. My wife is paying with her life.
Advertisers promote the benefits of their products but are seldom held accountable for presenting the whole truth. If tobacco companies were forced to declare what their product actually does for the consumer, commercials would show emaciated victims gagging spasmodically as they cough up blood. Judy met such a victim–in the mirror. It was a terrifying and heartbreaking experience. A great philosopher once said, “Nothing focuses the mind like the shadow of the gallows.”
Judy’s Christmas message to fellow smokers (in her own words):
“It’s not so much the physical pain of surgery or worrying about the traumatic end that awaits me. Nor is it accepting that I will never again participate in family activities that I love so much. What is really getting me down is having to face the fear in the eyes of loved ones. It hurts to not have a satisfactory answer for inquisitive grandchildren. They dont understand what is happening. Putting one’s family through such anguish is unforgivable. I continued to smoke, in spite of evidence that pin points cigarette smoking as the number one cause of lung cancer. Please, I beg of you, do what ever it takes to quit smoking. I have lost a lung, shortened my life, and sabotaged a loving family. I knew better but procrastinated. Now its too late. If you can’t quit smoking for yourself, for God’s sake stop for family and friends they deserve better.”
Judy McNeil, December 20, 2000
In loving memory of Judy McNeil April 1946May 2001
PASS THIS MESSAGE ON…YOU COULD SAVE A LIFE (writer grants permission to reproduce or publish anywhere)