The American Cancer Society (ACS) annually sets aside the third Thursday of November for the Great American Smokeout, an event that encourages smokers to kick the habit, as part of the Lung Cancer Awareness month.
This year, universities and organizations everywhere conducted the one-day event to support the campaign against smoking. Students from the University of Cincinnati (UC), as well as from the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), are among the groups of people that celebrated the 2015 Great American Smokeout on Nov. 19.
The concept behind the Great American Smokeout is that if one person is able to stop smoking, even for just a day, the person will be making an important step toward a life that is much healthier, the ACS said.
Coming Together To Raise Awareness
At the Great American Smokeout in Cincinnati, student organizations, together with representatives from the ACS, accepts monetary donations for cancer prevention services in exchange for hot dogs.
"We have some really great programs that you can get here locally here in Cincinnati that not all facilities have," said community manager Allison Smock of Relay for Life, an organization that holds fund-raising events for cancer awareness.
Ryan Gaffney, a marketing and international business student at UC who helped orchestrate the event, recalled his personal experience relating to lung cancer. Gaffney's mother was diagnosed with the disease.
"It wasn't looking too good and I told her if she could try and keep fighting, I would keep fighting," said Gaffney. "So, she kept fighting and now she is going on five years with beating her diagnoses and she is in remission surviving, and I am still here fighting."
In Alaska, UAA students succeeded in initiating a campaign to make their campus tobacco- and smoke-free. The university bans the use of tobacco and tobacco-related products such as e-cigarettes in the campus premises.
Yesenia Camarena, an International studies and pre-med student at UAA, said they celebrated the Great American Smokeout to encourage students to stop smoking.
"We also encourage them to hash out a plan if they ever decide to quit smoking," said Camarena.
Quit Smoking - Now
According to the ACS, more than 42 million individuals in the United States still smoke cigarettes, and tobacco use is still the single largest preventable cause of disease and death in the country. Quitting can significantly reduce the risks for cancer, the ACS said.
"Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death and when we look at helping people quit, it's one of the best things that you can do to promote a long-lived life," explained Dr. Gary Ferguson of Avante Medical Center. Ferguson used to be a smoker who became an advocate against the habit.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasized that quitting the use of cigarettes or tobacco can be the single most important step you take to protect your health and your loved ones' health.
"Just as every journey begins with a single step, so, too, does quitting," the CDC said.
Photo: Chelsea Marie Hicks | Flickr
