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Pam Laffin

Pam Laffin started smoking at age 10. She said she wanted to look older. Cigarettes gave her asthma and emphysema, but she still didn’t quit smoking.

At age 24, Pam had a lung surgically removed. The medication she took left her with a bloated face and trembling hands. She says that smoking really did make her look older than her years.

Confined to a wheelchair, Pam recorded a series of television spots in the hopes that it would prevent others from suffering from smoking as she did. She urged other smokers to quit before it was too late.

A single mother living in Malden, MA, Pam was scheduled to get a second lung transplant but died three weeks before the surgery. She left two young daughters behind. She was 31 years old.

Rick and Marie Stoddard

Rick Stoddard's wife, Marie, was diagnosed with lung cancer in August of 1999. She died five and a half months later in January 2000. She was 46 years old.

In writing her obituary, Rick insisted on identifying his wife's cause of death as cancer caused by cigarette smoking. A former smoker himself, he had unsuccessfully tried to help her quit smoking.

After Marie's death, Rick took his grief public in an effort to keep other people from experiencing the same type of loss. From his home in Central Massachusetts, Rick continues to tell people how tobacco killed the woman he loved.

Remembering Marie's suffering keeps Rick motivated. Her early death at 46 still seems unbelievable, and as he explains, "I guess I never thought of 23 as middle-aged."