To any smokers on Facepunch, I want YOU to read this. - General

On the day of Bryan's death, June 3, wife Bobbie and son Bryan keep a bedside vigil. The recent photo of father and son is on the bed. [img]http://whyquit.com/whyquit/bed.jpg[/img] Bryan Curtis started smoking at 13, never thinking that 20 years later it would kill him and leave a wife and children alone. In his last weeks, he set out with a message for young people. Bryan Lee Curtis, then 33, holds son Bryan Jr., 2, in this March 29 photo. [b]Curtis would die about two months later[/b]. [img]http://whyquit.com/whyquit/bryanandson.jpg[/img] Cigarette smoke hangs in the air in the room where Bryan Lee Curtis lies dying of lung cancer. His head, bald from chemotherapy, lolls on a pillow. The bones of his cheeks and shoulders protrude under taut skin. His eyes are open, but he can no longer respond to his mother or his wife, Bobbie, who married him in a makeshift ceremony in this room three weeks ago after doctors said there was no hope. In Bryan's emaciated hands, Bobbie has propped a photograph taken just two months ago. It shows a muscular and seemingly healthy Bryan holding his 2-year-old son, Bryan Jr. In the picture, he is 33. He turned 34 on May 10. A pack of cigarettes and a lighter sit on a table near Bryan's bed in his mother's living room. Even though tobacco caused the cancer now eating through his lungs and liver, Bryan smoked until a week ago, when it became impossible. Across the room, a 20-year-old nephew crushes out a cigarette in a large glass ashtray where the butt joins a dozen others. Bobbie Curtis says she'll try to stop after the funeral, but right now, it's just too difficult. Same for Bryan's mother, Louise Curtis. "I just can't do it now," she says, although she hopes maybe she can after the funeral. Bryan knew how hard it is to quit. But when he learned he would die because of his habit, he thought maybe he could persuade at least a few kids not to pick up that first cigarette. Maybe if they could see his sunken cheeks, how hard it was becoming to breathe, his shriveled body, it might scare them enough. So a man whose life was otherwise unremarkable set out in the last few weeks of his life with a mission. Bryan started when he was just 13, building up to more than two packs a day. He talked about quitting from time to time, but never seriously tried. Plenty of time for that, he figured. Older people got cancer. Not people in their 30s, not people who worked in construction, as a roofer, as a mechanic. He had no health insurance. But he was more worried about his mother, 57, who had smoked since she was 25. Bryan Lee Curtis' mother Louise Curtis grieving at his grave site Louise Curtis grieves for a son who told her, a smoker for 32 years, to worry about herself, not him. [img]http://whyquit.com/whyquit/bryans_mom.jpg[/img] "He would say, "Mom, don't worry about me. Worry about yourself. I'm healthy,' " Louise Curtis remembers. "You think this would happen later, when you're 60 or 70 years old, not when you're his age." He knew, only a few days after he went to the hospital on April 2 with severe abdominal pain, how wrong he had been. He had oat cell lung cancer that had spread to his liver. He probably had not had it long. Also called small cell lung cancer, it's an aggressive killer that usually claims the lives of its victims within a few months. While it seems unusual to the Curtis family, Dr. Jeffrey Paonessa, Bryan's oncologist, said he is seeing more lung cancer in young adults. "We've seen lung cancer earlier and earlier because people are starting to smoke earlier and earlier," Paonessa said. Chemotherapy sometimes slows the process, but had little effect in Bryan's case, he said. Bryan also knew, a few days after the diagnosis, that he wanted somehow to try to save at least one kid from the same fate. He sat down and talked with Bryan Jr. and his 9-year-old daughter, Amber, who already had been caught once with a cigarette. But he wanted to do more. Somehow, he had to get his story out. When he still had some strength to leave the house, kids would stare. "They'd come up and look at him because he looked so strange," Louise Curtis said. "He'd look at them and say, "This is what happens to you when you smoke.' "The kids would say, "Oh, man. I can't believe it,' " Louise Curtis said. After the graveside service June 8, this friend and a handful of relatives light up. [img]http://whyquit.com/whyquit/bryans_funeral.jpg[/img] In the last few weeks, Bryan's mother has been the agent for his mission to accomplish some good with the tragedy. She has called newspapers and radio and television stations, seeking someone willing to tell her son's story, willing to help give him the one thing he wanted before he died. Bryan never got to tell his story to the public. He spoke for the last time an hour before a visit from a Times reporter and photographer. "I'm too skinny. I can't fight anymore," he whispered to his mother at 9 a.m. June 3. He died that day at 11:56 a.m., just nine weeks after the diagnosis. Bryan Lee Curtis Sr. was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in St. Petersburg on June 8, a rare cloudy day that threatened rain. At the funeral service at nearby Blount, Curry and Roel Funeral Home, Bryan's casket was open and 50 friends and relatives could see the devastating effects of the cancer. Addiction is more powerful. As the graveside ritual ended, a handful of relatives backed away from the gathering, pulled out packs of cigarettes and lit up. [url=http://whyquit.com/whyquit/]Source[/url].

i smell troll

People who smoke aren't retarded. They know the dangers. This is like banning cars because you can crash them.

But it feels good man.

I fucking hate this negative stigma towards smokers. Those people, they think it's like turning off and on a switch to stop and start smoking.

I guess he got smoked.

5 posts?

[QUOTE=Killy_Mcgee;20058560]I fucking hate this negative stigma towards smokers. Those people, they think it's like turning off and on a switch to stop and start smoking.[/QUOTE] It is, unless you are dumb and have no self-control.

ahh it's lovely with a cigarette right now. *puff puff*

[QUOTE=Squeaken;20058524]People who smoke aren't retarded. They know the dangers. This is like banning cars because you can crash them.[/QUOTE] Except the car isn't BOUND to crash. Heavy smoking on the other side is in most of the cases. I was working in a hospital a few years ago and I tell you: 90% of the people in the cancer part of the hospital were smokers.

Sad shit, Smokers wont give a fuck though.

[QUOTE=Killy_Mcgee;20058560]I fucking hate this negative stigma towards smokers. Those people, they think it's like turning off and on a switch to stop and start smoking.[/QUOTE] The dumb thing is not that it is difficult to stop smoking. The dumb thing is to start it.

Should be banned to be honest, all they do is damage you, and the second hand smoke is annoying as fuck, does wonders for children and people with respiratory illness. Then, in place of the banned cigarettes, legalised marijuana for all :D As for alcohol, it only affects the person drinking it, not all the people within a 10 metre radius. If anything make it illegal to smoke in public places where other people will be affected by the smoke, its not fair to make other people breathe in a toxic plume courtesy of a cigarette smoker.

I just don't like the smell of stale smoke. That's my only reason for disliking it when people smoke.

On a long enough time frame you're going to die anyway, may as well look cool.

[QUOTE=DarkSpirit05er;20058571]It is, unless you are dumb and have no self-control.[/QUOTE] Yeah because it's called an addiction for the hell of it. To OP: I'll keep on smoking thanks, it's my personal choice whether to smoke and/or attempt to quit smoking, so butt your nose out. Unlike some, I'm fully prepared for and accept that I will have to face the consequences for it later on in life. [QUOTE=Killuah;20058582]Except the car isn't BOUND to crash. Heavy smoking on the other side is in most of the cases. I was working in a hospital a few years ago and I tell you: 90% of the people in the cancer part of the hospital were smokers.[/QUOTE] Yeah, smoking will kill you, eventually, unless something else gets you first, but it is subjective, some people smoke only for a few years before suffering the ill effect, my grandfather on the other hand has been smoking heavily for 66+ years and he's yet to come down with a smoking related ailment. [QUOTE=ThePunisher1;20058594]Should be banned to be honest, all they do is damage you. Then, in place of the banned cigarettes, legalised marijuana for all :D[/QUOTE] Excessive alcohol use can damage your liver and kill you, let's ban that, oh, wait, the USA tried that once, didn't work out too well. To all non smokers: [B]Get the fuck off our backs[/B] unless someone is breathing smoke in your face, in which case, take it up with them and leave the rest of us alone.

[QUOTE=Oktoberman!;20058517]i smell troll[/QUOTE] No i just farted.

[QUOTE=Squeaken;20058524]People who smoke aren't retarded. They know the dangers. This is like banning cars because you can crash them.[/QUOTE] Except not everybody who drives a car will crash it, while 100% of smokers will get screwed over by it.

[QUOTE=Archonos 2;20058707]Except not everybody who drives a car will crash it, while 100% of smokers will get screwed over by it.[/QUOTE] As i said before, yeah, smoking can kill you, as long as nothing else gets you before then. When my nan who smokes 60 a day died, it wasn't because of smoking, it was because of old age and complications of breaking her hip combined with dimensia and alzheimers.

[QUOTE=Archonos 2;20058707]100% of smokers will get screwed over by it.[/QUOTE] No

My parents are smoking and when I think that I will loose them fast it makes me feel shit.

I can't stand the dickhead smokers that light up right next to me when I'm waiting for a bus/have just found a nice patch of grass to lay on. No sympathy for the retards that die of tobacco-related deaths; you know it's bad for you.

420 Er day

[QUOTE=Killuah;20058582]Except the car isn't BOUND to crash.[/QUOTE] Not if its a Toyota.

[QUOTE=Archonos 2;20058707]Except not everybody who drives a car will crash it, while 100% of smokers will get screwed over by it.[/QUOTE] 100%? nope [editline]03:59PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Squeaken;20058742]Not if its a Toyota.[/QUOTE] if you manage to crash a toyota you need to learn how to drive

enjoy your cancer, smokers

[QUOTE=RayvenQ;20058642]Yeah because it's called an addiction for the hell of it. To OP: I'll keep on smoking thanks, it's my personal choice whether to smoke and/or attempt to quit smoking, so butt your nose out. Unlike some, I'm fully prepared for and accept that I will have to face the consequences for it later on in life. Yeah, smoking will kill you, eventually, unless something else gets you first, but it is subjective, some people smoke only for a few years before suffering the ill effect, my grandfather on the other hand has been smoking heavily for 66+ years and he's yet to come down with a smoking related ailment. Excessive alcohol use can damage your liver and kill you, let's ban that, oh, wait, the USA tried that once, didn't work out too well. To all non smokers: [B]Get the fuck off our backs[/B] unless someone is breathing smoke in your face, in which case, take it up with them and leave the rest of us alone.[/QUOTE] Would you say the same thing if you had cancer tomorow.

[QUOTE=opaali;20058748]if you manage to crash a toyota you need to learn how to drive[/QUOTE] Watch more news.

[QUOTE=Squeaken;20058760]Watch more news.[/QUOTE] I don't watch news because 95% of them are about something I don't give a fuck about who would buy a new car anyway

Threads like these make me want to start smoking, just because non-smokers can be such horrible whine bitches. Ain't you're business if someone smokes.