Good news, County School Board wants me to be a speaker. Update 4/14

debbiejeanne

wmc said:

Tell your son i'm proud of him............

I know how hard it is to quit, and for your son to, takes a strong person. I tried many times over 42 years. I have to treat it like an alcoholic, you just can't ever have the next one. This time I never had a problem and it doesn't bother me to be around someone smoking. I have to keep away from the smoke as it will hurt me, but I have no craving to have one. Sorry it took cancer for me to quit, but I still got a second chance and very glad I did. Thank you Beth.

Bill 

Bill, i just have to tell you

Bill, i just have to tell you again how AWESOME i think you are to spend your time to try to prevent others from ever starting to smoke.  that is the key, don't start.  i'm like you, it took 2 rounds of larynx cancer to make me quit after 43 yrs of 2 pks a day.  i truly respect you for all you do to help others and I pray your talks reach some of the kids you're speaking to.  i wish they would do a survey or something to see how many kids quits thanks to your talk.  that would be great information.  either way, i'm sure some will quit and others will NEVER START, so you are doing a great service to the kids.  keep up the great job and continue being the wonderful and caring person you are!  Thank you for all you do.

God bless you,

dj

donfoo

wmc said:

What a great day, after I found the correct school

They gave me the name of the Charter school and is was the wrong one. However I was early and was able to change and get to the correct school in time. It was the high school and around 35 - 40 kids. I will say it went much better than I thought it would. Most of the kids have never seen a neck breather in real life, let alone up close and talking to them. I was told afterwards that they were very attentive and didn't talk amoung themselves as they normally do. They were very courteous and really seemed to listen and hear what I was saying. I asked if there were any questions and only a few had any. As I was speaking at times you could see some of the kids look down like it got to them. I hope it did. They want me to do it again at another High School next month. I should get some feed back in a few weeks. The School board seemed very happy with my talk and want me to continue, and so do I. 

Bill

glad you got there..

Boy, that must have had you in a panic. Glad you got there in time and it went well. What you are doing is really an admirable effort. Being there in person and the kids experiencing this first hand surely has a much greater impact than some youtube video. See if you can plant some real eye openers to get the kids to really perk up and get Q&A going on full boil. 

Nearly every teenager, even when they see you, have a very hard time seeing themselves in your shoes. Think of some ways to draw them in to the point where it really hits home and gets through the invincibility of youth and in fact, it can indeed happen to them. 

Thanks again for going way beyond most and doing meaningful work to educate youth about cancer.

 

Don

wmc

donfoo said:

glad you got there..

Boy, that must have had you in a panic. Glad you got there in time and it went well. What you are doing is really an admirable effort. Being there in person and the kids experiencing this first hand surely has a much greater impact than some youtube video. See if you can plant some real eye openers to get the kids to really perk up and get Q&A going on full boil. 

Nearly every teenager, even when they see you, have a very hard time seeing themselves in your shoes. Think of some ways to draw them in to the point where it really hits home and gets through the invincibility of youth and in fact, it can indeed happen to them. 

Thanks again for going way beyond most and doing meaningful work to educate youth about cancer.

 

Don

Don and DJ thank you.

Thank you both. When I hear and feedback I will let you know. Don, I will try to get more questions on the next one as well as interaction. I will see if I can get some of them to try my EL [Electric Larynx] so they will get to see what and how hard it can be to learn with.

Bill