Bucks For Butts - Anti Smoking Campaign
From ABC Action News http://www.abcactionnews.com/ugc/cat/tampabaycalendar/lh3a6hdb2kCiXkpx4up7OA.aspx
User: lissette
Submitted: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 3:50 PM
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Wednesday, November 25 is the LAST DAY smokers will be rewarded for quitting this month for National Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
A group of local oncologists is picking a “Grant Quitter Winner” from this month’s “Bucks for Butts” campaign - offering $5 gift cards to Publix (cannot purchase tobacco products with these) for every pack of cigarettes that are turned in. Smokers will pledge to quit ‘cold turkey’ before Turkey Day!
Bucks for Butts Cash-in for quitting your bad habit this month during National Lung Cancer Awareness Month at WellSpring Oncology Cancer Center
Pinellas Park, Fla. (November 18, 2009) – It’s National Lung Cancer Awareness Month and a local group of physicians from the WellSpring Oncology Cancer Center are taking an aggressive stand to help smokers kick the bad habit with the “Bucks for Butts” campaign this November. Every smoker who relinquishes his/her box of opened cigarettes gets a $5 gift card* to Publix. They then take a petition, in the form of their signature testimony on the Bucks for Butts – “I Quit” poster board, which sits next to an oversized “Butts Basket” for disposal. (*For the first fifty participants)
At the end of the month, all the petitioners will be put into a raffle to win a grand prize. If the winner has successfully abstained from smoking until the end of the month, they are eligible to win. If they’ve not completely quit – the selection moves to the next candidate from the raffle pool for selection. Participants may be contacted throughout the month to confirm his/her commitment to quit smoking. The grand prize will be announced at the end of the month.
“We’re very passionate about this – we want to create as much awareness as we can for this lethal disease. It seems like a simple cancer to prevent but we understand it’s not, which is why we want to offer a reward to those who want to quit cold turkey before Thanksgiving!” said WellSpring oncologist, Dr. Robert Miller.
In the U.S., approximately 23.5 percent of men and 18.1 percent of women are smokers. Each year, lung cancer kills more people than breast, prostate, colon and pancreas cancers combined – making it the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., one in every three cancer deaths. Partnering with the American Lung Association and the Lung Cancer Alliance, Dr. Robert Miller, Dr. Frank Franzese and Dr. Zucel Solc, join the fight against the number one cause of lung cancer (87 percent of cases) – smoking. Because lung cancer is cunningly undetected with little to no symptoms, the disease can advance by the time the victim realizes they have it. An average of 437 people die every day from lung cancer.
Cigarette smoke contains at least 250 chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic (cancer-causing). “Risks such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, respiratory issues, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, infertility in women and low birth-weight babies in childbirth can all be prevented by quitting smoking,” said Dr. Solc.
Despite the harsh truth behind cigarette smoking and lung cancer, WellSpring Oncology is the first cancer center in Pinellas County to offer high-end radiosurgery options to the area with CyberKnife.
CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery is a medical procedure that utilizes very accurately targeted doses of radiation to precisely treat cancer. CyberKnife uses noninvasive image-guided localization, proving to be an effective alternative to surgery or conventional radiation for treating many small tumors. Radiosurgery for lung cancer may control up to 97 percent of lung cancers.
“It’s precise, it’s painless and is delivers large killing doses of radiation,” said Dr. Franzese. Multiple beams of high energy radiation are delivered from multiple points outside of the body and converge precisely at the tumor or lesion inside the body. It irradiates only the tumor and protects surrounding healthy tissue. “The beauty of CyberKnife is that it can treat lesions which may be considered ‘inoperable’ or ‘untreatable’ – giving patients new hope,” said Dr. Franzese.
When Smokers Quit - What Are the Benefits Over Time?
20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drops.
12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.
1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.
1 year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.
5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.
10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker’s. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease.
15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker’s.
Source: American Cancer Society
About WellSpring Oncology: Doctors Robert Miller, Zucel Solc and Frank Franzese opened the doors of WellSpring Oncology in spring of 2008 to provide high-end treatment in a more personal and caring environment. The doctors at WellSpring Oncology have been practicing innovative radiation therapy since the 1970’s and developed the center to ensure patients have access to the latest technology available in the treatment of cancer. The doctors of WellSpring Oncology are all board-certified in radiation oncology and received their training at the top centers in the country, including MD Anderson, Memorial Sloan Kettering and the University of California San Francisco.
WellSpring Oncology is located at 6600 Sixty Sixth Street North in Pinellas Park, Florida. For more information, contact WellSpring Oncology at (727) 343-0600 or visit them online at www.wellspringoncology.org.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:43 am
What a brilliant post.