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| created by Lintas emphasise the importance of Breast Self Examination in diagnosis of breast cancer at the earliest possible stage when it is curable. |
The word cancer immediately invokes terror and thoughts of death in the minds of most people. At the same time, the incidence of cancer is on the rise. It is evident from one’s experience that it is becoming a more and more common disease with a case in every family. In fact, cancer is not something to be feared. A majority of cancers can be prevented by adopting healthy social practices and, if detected early, can be totally cured. In India, especially, there is a need for education and information on various aspects of cancer. Even educated patients have a problem accessing information which could help them to cope better with the disease.
Recognising this particular problem, Cancer Patients Aid Association has focused on ways and means to tackle it. Our appeals received overwhelming responses from the advertising, television & film fraternity as they joined hands on various occasions to create compelling & hard-hitting campaigns - print, billboards & short movies. Along with reaching out to a large number of people these, many of these campaigns won awards and accolades at international levels.
A
series of advertisements made by Contract Advertising also appeared in
Indian Express and Loksatta regarding Passive Smoking. Too often, smokers
endanger the lives of non-smokers by smoking in their presence. Recently,
studies have shown that such second hand smoke can also raise the risk
of contracting cancer significantly. The danger is especially grave for
children of parents who smoke. They are more likely to suffer from pneumonia
or bronchitis in the first two years of life than children who live in
smoke-free households. Several studies have also established a link with
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Children of parents who smoke have
a twofold-increased risk of dying of SIDS.
 |
|
created by Touchstone Advertising |
CPAA is indeed grateful to these agencies for acting out of a sense of moral responsibility. Their efforts will help people to imbibe the message of Prevention and Early Detection.
Poems
from Stella Dunstan, Cambridge, UK
How to quit smoking
Poems
from Stella Dunstan, Cambridge, UK
These poems on cancer were sent to us by Stella Dunstan who lost her brother to lung cancer. They provide strong motivation for all smokers to give up their habit.
| WHAT AM I? Orange and white is what I am - I wouldn’t say that I was glam. Starting long, I finish short, Putting you on life support. I make a mess, I don’t smell nice, And accompanying me is a very high price. Life with me will never be fun - I’m sure you’ll wish you’d never begun! To this one I have got no answer. All I offer is lung cancer. Do you wish we’d never met? Yes, me - that killer cigarette! |
ALL BECAUSE YOU SMOKE I cannot breath, you’re stifling me My vision’s blurred, I cannot see The reason for these ghastly things Is all because you smoke You take that dirty cigarette A smell that no one can forget The reason for these ghastly things Is all because you smoke Your teeth are yellow, your breath is stale Have you thought what you inhale The reason for these ghastly things Is all because you smoke Your purse is empty for they’re a price Very expensive for something not nice The reason for these ghastly things Is all because you smoke You’ve got lung cancer and it’s too late Do you want to be buried or shall we cremate The reason for these ghastly things Is all because you smoke |
SEALED WITH A KISS His eyes met mine,
I started to melt
|
| © Copyright Stella Dunstan 2001 * Creative Communication | ||
|
Over the years numerous people have come to Cancer Patients Aid Association expressing their genuine desire to quit smoking. Yet they are unable to do so. There are both psychological and pharmacological reasons why quitting is so tricky. The nicotine in cigarettes is potentially as addictive as cocaine and heroine and hence as difficult to give up. Medical aids in the form of patches and chewing gum that release moderate amounts of nicotine into the bloodstream, have been found to be partially successful during the early days in combating withdrawal symptoms. However the psychological aspects of the habit are equally hard to surmount and must be overcome by sheer will power. Each individual’s motivations for trying to quit vary. The most important step remains the first one, making the decision. Subsequently each one of us must assess what it is that will motivate us to quit. Given below are some tips that can be used. |
- Before you quit smoking, try wrapping your cigarettes with a sheet of paper like a Christmas present. Every time you want a cigarette, unwrap the pack and write down what you are doing, how you feel and how important this cigarette is to you. Do this for two weeks and you will cut down as well as develop new insights into your habit.
- Many smokers feel that cigarettes give them energy. Such people should try gum, modest exercise, a brisk walk or a new hobby. But keep in mind, most smokers tend to put on weight, so watch your diet and do not start eating rich foods.
- If you gain weight while giving up smoking, don’t start dieting immediately. Wait until you have succeeded in giving up smoking first.
- If cigarettes help you to relax, try meditating, drinking a new beverage or some new social activity.
- Try choosing an opportune time to quit, such as when you are ill with a cold or flu and have lost your taste for cigarettes.
- On a 3"x 5" card, make a list of what you like and dislike about smoking. Add to it and refer to it daily.
- Make a short list of things you have always wanted to buy. Next to each, write its cost. Convert each cost into number of packs of cigarettes. If you save the money each day, you will now be able to buy these items. Use a special piggy bank for collecting this money.
- Do not smoke after you get the craving until at least 3 minutes have passed. During that time, change your thinking or activity. Telephone somebody you can talk to until the craving subsides.
- Plan a memorable day for stopping. Choose a vacation, New Year’s Day, your birthday, a holiday, your child’s birthday, your anniversary. But don’t make the date so distant that you change your mind.
- If you smoke under stress at work, pick a date when you are away from work.
- Decide whether you are going to stop suddenly or gradually. If it is to be gradual, work out a tapering system so that you have immediate goals on your way to an ‘I Quit’ day.
- Don’t store up cigarettes. Never buy by the carton. Wait until one pack is finished before you buy another.
- Never carry cigarettes around with you at home or at work. Keep them as far away as possible. Leave them with someone or lock them up.
- Until you quit, make a smoking corner that is far away from anything interesting.
- Never smoke while watching television.
- If you like to smoke with others, try smoking alone. If you like smoking alone, try to find the company of people who do not smoke.
- Never carry matches or lighters around with you.
- Put away ashtrays or fill them with flowers or nuts. Walnuts will give you something to do with your hands.
- Change your cigarette brand so that you progressively smoke cigarettes with lower and lower tar and nicotine content.
- Always ask yourself, "Do I really need this cigarette or is it just a reflex?"
- Try to help someone else stop smoking.
- Each day try to postpone lighting your first cigarette of the day.
- Decide that you will only smoke on even or odd numbered hours or as the habit recedes, on odd or even dates.
- Keep your hands occupied. Try a musical instrument, knitting or puzzles.
- Make a major change in your habits. Seek new activities or perform old ones in new ways. Think of different ways to solve problems. Do things differently.
- Get out of the house if you tend to smoke more at home.
- Keep to places where smoking is not allowed, libraries, theatres, department stores or just go to bed early during the first few days when you are trying to give up smoking.
- Keep light reading materials, crossword puzzles or brochures to read during coffee breaks.
- Take a shower or do something where you cannot smoke.
- Brush your teeth frequently to get rid of the tobacco taste and stains.
- Visit your dentist after you quit and have your teeth cleaned to remove tobacco stains and stale tobacco taste.
- When you have a craving for a cigarette, take 10 deep breaths, hold the last breath while you light a match and blow it out with the exhaled breath. Put the match out in an ashtray, as you would have a cigarette. Pretend that it was a cigarette you put out. Then immediately start another activity.
- Only smoke half a cigarette and throw the rest away.
- After you quit, start using your lungs. Increase your activities and start moderate exercise, such as walks.
- Place a bet with someone that you can quit. Put the cigarette money in a jar each morning and forfeit it if you smoke, keeping the money if you don’t smoke by the end of the week. Gradually extend this period until you stop altogether.
- Purchase a money order equivalent to a year’s supply of cigarettes and give it to a friend for safe keeping. If you smoke in the next year, your friend keeps the money order. If you don’t, he gives it back to you at the end of the year.
- If you are depressed or have physical symptoms that might be related to your smoking, discuss it with a doctor. It is easier to quit when you are aware of your health status.
- After you quit, decide on someone who you can call when you crave a cigarette. Never face the situation of craving a cigarette alone.
Check
out the following link to know more - Quit
Smoking and more
The Benefits of Quitting Smoking
What happens to your body when you quit smoking
If you smoke, your body is constantly working to try and repair the damage done by regularly inhaling more than 4000 toxic chemicals. Every hour, day, week, month and year that you go without smoking, your health will improve. You will feel immediate benefits when you quit as your body starts to repair itself. Quitting at any age is beneficial and does not only increase life expectancy, it also improves quality of life.
After 8 hours:
* Nicotine will start to leave your body.
* Your heart rate and blood pressure will begin to return to normal.
* The level of oxygen in your blood will start to increase.
After 12 hours:
* There will be almost no nicotine remaining in your body.
After 24 hours:
* The level of carbon monoxide in your blood will have dropped
dramatically.
After 3 to 5 days:
* Your sense of taste and smell will improve.
* You will feel and sleep better and your breath, clothes and hair will
smell fresher.
After 1 month:
* Your immune system will begin to show signs of recovery.
* You will experience less shortness of breath and be able to exercise
more easily than before.
After 2 months:
* Your lungs will no longer be producing the extra phlegm caused by
smoking.
* Your blood pressure level will return to normal.
* Your blood circulation will improve and blood will flow more easily to
your hands and feet.
After 3 months:
* The cilia in your lungs will have recovered to efficiently clean your
lungs and airways.
After 1 year:
* Your risk of dying from coronary heart disease will be half that of a
continuing smoker.
After 5 years:
* Your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and oesophagus will be half
that of a continuing smoker.
After 10 years:
* Your risk of lung cancer will be less than half that of a continuing
smoker.
After 15 years:
* Your risk of coronary heart disease and stroke will be almost the same
as that of a person who has never smoked.
It's never too late ~ a poem
by Aniket Anand 
Damp breeze amongst shimmering
lights,
Quite heavy lay the rainy night,
Incessant coughs, her voice too gruff,
Yet rose the white smoke puff.
Minutes ago the rain had ceased,
Hither-thither lay chilling mist,
She had found a bench and lighted one,
Remorseful for having done.
Her life was a happy and pleasant one,
A carefree bird with hunters none,
Yet she smoked, the free sweet lark,
Two years ago in the same old park.
As days rushed past and months went by,
She missed her smile, her stare wry,
The lark quit her chirp and song and play,
She couldn't sleep at night and smoked all day.
Numerous alikes she found on the way,
But they seemed happy, cheerful and gay,
She envied their joy and wept lighting it,
A monstrous effort - she was trying to quit.
She liked it then, as all other folks,
Looked down upon the world as a roosting hawk,
She relished diving in the smoky well,
Yes, it helped to delve in her self.
Now a deplorable her, yearning to quit,
She threw them all and yelped seeing it,
She tried all day with her last bit,
But as night fell, she bought one and lit.
And so it happened, day after day,
"I pity her," you could hear them say,
She restrained for a while but couldn't for long,
She would end up smoking every morn.
Then there was a day she managed without,
Enthralled to the spirit, she would scream and shout,
She said aloud, "I'd no more be sick,"
Yet the next setting sun lit the stick.
There were days again she managed without,
"She'll smoke again," you could hear them doubt,
But she fought and stretched it to a week,
Spirited again to give up the wick.
Steadily she tread the path so wild,
Determined to quit before she died,
Months now she could stand without lighting it,
Eventually, one gracious day, she managed to quit.
She was strolling past the same old park,
She found a faint light amidst the dark,
A young boy smoking, two packets nearby lay,
"It's never late to quit," she said and went away.
Stickers : Would you like us to send you a set of 3 attractive Anti-gutkha stickers? Click here.
According
to WHO Country profiles, India has one of the highest rates of oral cancer
in the world and rates are still increasing. This disproportionate incidence
of oral cancer has been related to the high proportion of tobacco chewers,
a habit unique to Indians. Oral cancer accounts for one-third of the total
cancer cases and 90% of the patients are tobacco chewers. This is true
across a broad spectrum of people, rich and poor, male and female, old
and young.
The statistics are eye opening. Only 20% of the total tobacco consumed in India is in the form of cigarettes, about 40% is in the form of bidis and the remaining 40% is consumed as chewing tobacco, pan masala, snuff, gutkha, masheri and tobacco toothpaste. These products contain putrefied tobacco, paraffin, areca nut, lime, catechu, and 230 permitted additives and flavours including known carcinogens.
WHO reports suggest that 65% of all Indian men use at least one form of tobacco. For women, the usage statistics differed from 15% in rural Gujarat to 67% in Andhra Pradesh, the overall prevalence being 3% for bidi and cigarette smoking. What is alarming is that fully one third of all women use at least one form of tobacco and in Mumbai, 57.5% of women use tobacco but solely in the smokeless form.
The habit has a high degree of social acceptability. A popular advertisement showed the parents of a bride and groom agreeing to greet guests with pan masala. People who would not dream of smoking, have no such qualms about consuming several packets of pan masala every day, simply because they are unaware of the dangers involved.
Most people have no idea
that consuming smokeless tobacco is as dangerous as smoking and while
packets of pan masala do bear health warnings, they are rendered almost
invisible by the bright shiny
packaging and the small size of the warnings.
Consequently, unlike smoking, which must be hidden from adults, children
can openly consume pan masalas.
Shockingly, younger and younger children are being introduced into this habit, with the first introduction often being given at home by an elder who is unaware of the dangers he is exposing the child to.
The fact is that smokeless tobacco has been directly related to the incidence of oral cancer. The first signs are the appearance of patches and sores in the mouth or tongue, followed by submucous fibrosis and difficulty in opening the mouth fully. At this stage the signs are reversible, but if left untreated will almost certainly develop into cancer. A recent news item on BBC reported usage of pan masalas by the large ethnic Indian community in England. The abuse of smokeless tobacco resulted in cases of submucous fibrosis among patients who spoke of their ignorance of the dangers they had exposed themselves to.
Confronted with the vast problem of tobacco usage and its social acceptability, it is tempting to say that the problem of addiction is too deep rooted to attempt to fight and to focus attention instead on preventing young people from taking up the habit. However, this has been found to be unsuccessful unless it follows strong anti-tobacco sentiment in the adult community and high proportions of the population giving up tobacco usage. CPAA has therefore adopted a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, in a massive drive covering at least 50 schools in different localities in Mumbai, we are educating children in Standards 8, 9 and 10 in the dangers of tobacco dependency. At the same time, a series of advertisements are being visualized to educate adults on the harms of smokeless tobacco and advising them not to introduce their children to the habit.
"We never tell kids not to smoke or chew tobacco," says CPAA’s Alka Kapadia. "Instead we educate them and offer our help in kicking the habit." The lecture begins with general information about the disease, the warning signs, symptoms, prevention through early detection. The schools being visited during the month of August, 1999 are St. Xavier’s High School, J.B. Wachcha, St. Anne’s High School, and Don Bosco.
"Our most depressing failures is with children from the lower income levels. It is difficult to convince them to give up tobacco. The habit helps them to deal with their daily lives, it kills the appetite and gives a kick that makes them happy for a while. It is cheaper to buy a packet of gutka than dinner. And it gives them the strength to face challenges of child labour including late night shifts. Sometimes it is their only source of happiness. In such cases, we advise them to pay attention to oral hygiene, to at least brush their teeth before sleeping so that the remnants of the tobacco do not attack the buccal linings overnight and to watch for patches which can be the first sign of cancer."
Are you a school and would you like CPAA to visit you as part of the Anti-Gutkha Campaign? Click here.
Would you like to contribute to CPAA’s Anti-Gutkha Campaign? Click here.
Breast cancer, hitherto considered to be a "Western Cancer", is the second most common form of cancer among Indian women. This could well be because of the changing lifestyles of Indian women with delayed childbearing or having no children at all, failure to breast feed, obesity and a diet rich in animal fats becoming increasingly common. Whatever the reasons, like other cancers, breast cancer can also spread if unchecked. Fortunately, it is a cancer that can be easily detected at an early stage and treatment can lead to a total cure.
CPAA has initiated a Breast Self Examination (BSE) Drive to educate women on how to carry out this simple examination and why it is so important.
At all of CPAA’s OPDs, a part of the regular screening procedure includes education on how to carry out BSE correctly. A brochure describing the steps involved has also been written.
Recently, a generous donation from KSB Pumps has made it possible for CPAA to initiate a ‘Well-Woman Clinic’ to screen 800 economically backward women for breast cancer. These women will be given a free checkup, including mammogram and Pap smear test and will be taught BSE.
If you would like to know more about Breast Self Examination, please attend one of the OPDs, held absolutely free of charge between 2 and 3.30 PM on Tuesdays at Lila Kishanchand Shahani Clinical Diagnostic Centre, Naigaon and on Wednesdays and Thursdays at Suman Ramesh Tulsiani Diagnostic & Rehabilitation Center at Prabhadevi.
If you would like to be sent a brochure about Breast Cancer, click here.
To know more about breast cancer, click here
Cervical cancer is the most common form of cancer among Indian women. This has been related to the custom of early marriage common in rural India and absence of education on hygiene.
Cervical cancer, a slow growing cancer, lends itself to early detection through Pap smear testing, a painless test which involves scraping cells from the cervix during a pelvic examination. A microscopic examination of the smear can identify abnormal cells even in a precancerous stage (dysplasia). Not all cervical dysplasia will become malignant if left untreated, but a more concentrated follow up is indicated.
CPAA conducts Pap smear tests free of charge for all women who attend the OPD at the Cancer Detection Centres at Prabhadevi and Naigaon. Efforts are on to disseminate information on cervical cancer through a tie up with a manufacturer of sanitary napkins.
To find out more about the free Pap smear test, please attend one of the OPDs, held absolutely free of charge between 2 and 3.30 PM on Tuesdays at Lila Kishanchand Shahani Clinical Diagnostic Centre, Naigaon and on Wednesdays and Thursdays at Suman Ramesh Tulsiani Diagnostic & Rehabilitation Center, Prabhadevi.