Lifestyles Ideas Management - Truths about Lung Cancer

According to the Global Lung Cancer Coalition (www.lungcancercoalition.org)
Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in the world – causing more deaths than breast and prostate cancers combined
Every 30 seconds someone in the world dies of lung cancer
About 40 percent of smokers who start smoking in their early teens and who continue to smoke risk early death from lung cancer.
Only one in 10 people with lung cancer live for more than five years after diagnosis.
Women smokers are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as male smokers. And even women whoa re non-smokers have a higher risk of developing lung cancer than men.

That reminds me of my father who picked up smoking at seventeen years of age and married at 27 with my mother, a non-smoker. All their years of marriage, father tried so hard to quit smoking with mother helping out by nagging each time he smoked. She would nag at the number of packs he smoked a day. Somehow, the nagging failed and mother started to steal a few sticks from each newly open pack which father will leave on the table. She would stuff the sticks all over the place, in the living room drawer, in the kitchen and anywhere she thought it was difficult for father to find it. Father will buy new pack and as time goes by, he will always put the pack near to him. These goes on until my father was 70 years old, one day he decided to quit just like that. He went for walk and sleep early in the evening. The quitting was successful alas! Five years later, he complained of chest pain and all kind of pains which was indescribable. It takes awhile for father to agree on a body check at the local hospital. He stayed there for first week with various tests, blood, urine and stool. I went daily to check with the doctor for any results but each time I did not get to see the house doctor. Well, after all no news was good news to me. Then the second week, I saw my father and how have he aged so fast just one week stay in the hospital. I took an off day just to make sure that I can get to meet the ward doctor. Later, the doctor told me that his left lungs has collapse and the right lung was just as bad, in short he just have a few days left.
My father asked me what the doctor says and I mumbled that he was doing well and if he took his medicine regularly he should be able to go home soon. But that was a big lie, I knew my father well enough as he was afraid of dying. That evening I did not know how I managed to arrive home by the MRT. My eyes were swelled with tears along the whole journey and I think a lot of commuter was looking at me during the train journey. But I was too sad.
When I reached home, it was so difficult to relate the bad news to my siblings especially my mum. But I did. Then the next day I went to the office and signed on for one week leave just to spent time with my father in the hospital. I went early before the doctor rounds at 8:00 am sat there without talking much. Even when my father was alive, we did not talked much other than the usual conversations. But this time my father will asked lot of questions like “please help to take care of your mother” ”asked her not to brew any traditional Chinese medicine”.
He will always ask me to go home early as it was late in the evening. Then one afternoon he told me to pray for him. He wished for peace in his heart as he mentioned that night time was the most torturous hour for him. I asked him whether he was willing to believe in Jesus as He can give him peace. He told me to take charge of his funeral wake and his cremation arrangement.
He believed in Jesus and there was peace throughout the time until he passed away peacefully at evening. His greatest wish which he requested for me to pray was that he will not suffered pain and truly he did not suffered pain at all. Even till the last minute of breath, he felt breathless and he left and slept forever.

For two years, our family (most of us who was close to him) went through the five stages of grief, denial, depression and later acceptance. After his funeral I changed my job as it was too much for me to cope and needed time to grieve through the “first loss”.