Annette S.: Lung Cancer, Then Oral Cancer, After More Than 30 Years of Smoking

Annette S. tried cigarettes as a teenager, smoking now and then; by 20 she was smoking regularly. Her story is part of CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign.

Quitting — too late to escape cancer

Annette lives in New York. She is the mother of three, with three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, and she loves family visits. She is especially close to her 10-year-old granddaughter, who kept begging her to stop smoking.

• At 50, after more than 30 years of smoking, Annette took her granddaughter's advice and quit cold turkey. But by then she already had cancer.
• At 52, she went to the doctor with trouble breathing. Finding the cause took several visits, many X-rays and finally a PET/CT scan: lung cancer, so advanced that one of her lungs had to be removed. The operation removed the cancer.
• A few years later, her follow-up care, which she kept up faithfully, turned up oral cancer. It had reached her jawbone, and she needed surgery again.

Now

At 57, when CDC told her story, Annette was smokefree and cancer-free — and grateful. Her strong faith helps her cope with what she has been through. She loves to crochet, cook and spend time with the people she loves, and she supports smoking cessation groups, telling people who smoke that this can happen to them. Through the campaign, she wants to spread the message that smoking is dangerous — and can kill.

Free help to quit

By phone

• 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669)
• 1-855-DÉJELO-YA (1-855-335-3569), in Spanish
• 1-800-838-8917, in Chinese
• 1-800-556-5564, in Korean
• 1-800-778-8440, in Vietnamese

By text or app

• Text QUITNOW to 333888 — national texting portal (message and data rates may apply)
• quitSTART app

Online

• CDC's Quit Smoking (en español)
• Smokefree.gov (en español)
• Asian Smokers' Quitline

More: CDC on smoking and cancer, Annette's print ad (PDF), and all the Tips participants' stories.

Sources

Based on "Annette S.'s Story," Tips From Former Smokers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The campaign's photographs of Annette and of other participants, and its stock images, are not reproduced.