Community Chat

[LilacTree]

In light of the recent discussions about Valerie Harper:

Many years ago the actor, Yul Brynner, was diagnosed with and died of lung cancer. Prior to his death he made a commercial indicating that by the time we saw this commercial he would be gone . . . from years and years of smoking. He was so strong in his advice to the public to stop smoking. It was extremely effective, many people I knew stopped smoking because of it.

Unfortunately neither my beloved mother nor sister stopped smoking. My mother died at age 49 and my sister just a year and a half ago at age 72. Imagine 60 years of smoking. By the time my sister died, it was everywhere in her body including, of course, her brain.

Valerie's cancer started in her lungs and she was "cured," but apparently it metastasized to her brain which is supposed to be very rare. Most, not all, lung (and colon) cancer is caused by smoking. It is an addiction that I believe the tobacco industry not only promotes but continues to add more and more addictive substances to cigarettes to keep it more and more addictive. It unnerves me that they can't be stopped.

So my point is that perhaps in her many appearances Valerie should try to promote the fact that her initial cancer was caused by smoking. It surprises me that she does not.

Here is Brynner's posthumous commercial.