Smokeout Thursday: North Webster couple reflect on battle to quit smoking
Tim Robertson
Staff Writer
Thursday is the date of the Great American Smokeout, the day each year on which the American Cancer Society encourages smokers to give up smoking for just one day.
In 1990, Terry Manley, North Webster, took that challenge. Now, 18 years later, he said he's still smoke-free.
Looking back on his choice to give up cigarettes for a day, Manley said it was not an easy time in his life. His first wife, Jackie, was dying of cancer and Manley said he was smoking about three packs of cigarettes every day. He couldn't smoke around Jackie, so he had to find other places to smoke.
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"I was out in my shop smoking one day and I just thought, 'This is really bad,'" said Manley. "I said, 'I'm just going to quit one day.'"
Jackie died in 1991 at the age of 47. Several years later, Manley married his current wife, Diane, who also took the challenge to quit smoking.
The Manleys have both survived bouts with cancer. Diane said she quit smoking the day she had her first surgery for cancer.
"I had my last cigarette going into the portico outside the hospital before surgery," she said.
The Manleys both say kicking their smoking habits was a fight. "It was rough," Diane said.
"It was horrible," Manley said. "It was really bad for about a month."
Manley said his coworkers saw he was having a hard time. One of them gave him a piece of hard candy. From then on, Manley said, whenever he wanted a cigarette, he ate a piece of hard candy instead.
"I just went one day at a time," he said. "Every day gets easier."
Diane said quitting was a day-by-day decision for her too.
"Every night, when I wanted my after-dinner cigarette, I would just go out for a walk instead," she said. "And I would walk and cry, it was so hard."
Diane said her walks and chewing gum replaced cigarettes in her life, and gradually, she missed cigarettes less and less.
"In six months, I was over it," she said.
Thursday is the 33rd Great American Smoke Out. The ACS provides resources to help with smoking cessation. ACS's Quitline, 800-227-2345, provides free, confidential counseling, which has been shown to more than double a person's chances of successfully quitting tobacco.
Callers to Quitline can be connected with smoking cessation resources in their communities, social support groups, Internet resources, and medication assistance referrals. Since its inception in 2000, Quitline has provided counseling support to more than 380,000 smokers.
The American Cancer Society offers other free resources - through Quitline and at www.cancer.org/GreatAmericans - that can increase a smoker's chances of quitting successfully, including tips and tools for friends, family, and coworkers of potential quitters to help them be aware and supportive of the struggle to quit smoking.
According to the ACS, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States. Each year, smoking accounts for an estimated 438,000 premature deaths, including 38,000 deaths among nonsmokers as a result of secondhand smoke. Half of all Americans who continue to smoke will die from smoking-related diseases.
Diane said, since quitting smoking, she's come to appreciate the benefits.
"You feel better, you smell better, and your risk of lung cancer and oral cancer goes down," she said. "You're free from those controls on your life once you're free from those nicotine fits."
Manley said quitting is worth the struggle.
"When you smoke, you're giving up your whole life to avoid two or three weeks of misery," he said. "Take it one day at a time. I don't believe you're addicted for life."
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