Personal Advocacy

After talking about tobacco in this space over the last couple of days I have received a few stories from friends that I thought were interesting.

The first is a story about Terry Francona, manager of the Boston Red Sox, and his battle to quit chewing tobacco. To put the pressure on Francona to quit, Red Sox President Larry Lucchino made a bet with Francona. The bet, a $20,000 donation to the Jimmy Fund, would be paid by Lucchino if Francona could go the entire season with out chewing tobacco. If Francona fails he will have to make the same donation. The wager is also inspiring the Red Sox to initiate a “Spit Tobacco Abstinence & Recovery War,” as an effort to encourage others using tobacco to stop.

The second story involves the City of Baltimore and their recently passed no-smoking ordinance. While a lot of politicians would have stopped there, Mayor Sheila Dixon decided to seize on the publicity of the legislation to push for a Nicotine Replacement Therapy Initiative to help the residents of Baltimore quit smoking. Through this initiative qualified uninsured and underinsured city smokers will be eligible for free nicotine patches or gum to help them stop smoking if they enroll in a free telephone counseling program run by Maryland’s Quitline.

To me, both of these stories illustrate a great point. In this fight, while we spend a great deal of time talking about advocacy from a political standpoint, it is equally important for us to attack this disease from another front - through personal advocacy.

Both the Boston Red Sox and the City of Baltimore should be applauded for their work to fight this disease and make the world a little healthier.

Have a great weekend.

LIVESTRONG,
Lance