Lung Cancer Survivor Speaks in Favor of Bill 150
GUAM-Olivia Aguon began smoking cigarettes as a teenager. Many members of her family smoked and so did many of her friends. “Cigarettes were cheap,” Aguon said.
“Back in those days, the tobacco companies did not warn us that the products we were using were dangerous or addictive and there were no laws against selling cigarettes to children, so as many of my friends and family did, I started and got hooked,” Agoun stated in her testimony at the public hearing for Bill 150.
After smoking for decades, Aguon wanted to quit desperately but didn’t have the courage or belief she could do it, until the encouragement of her family doctor, who helped her to quit in June of 2000.
Three months after she had quit smoking, she began to cough up blood. She went to her doctor immediately and after a series of tests and ruling out tuberculosis she was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. The cancer had grown to 12 centimeters in size and Aguon was immediately placed in the strongest chemotherapy treatment.
After losing her first husband to lung cancer, Aguon was afraid she would have to put her children through the same painful ordeal.
The treatment and quitting smoking saved her life. “Others are not so lucky,” Aguon said. Aguon’s second husband, Roy also a former smoker, suffered a heart attack attributed to smoking. Now the couple is smoke free 9 years later, but not until after suffering the terrible hardship of battling cancer.
Because her cancer was preventable, Aguon wholeheartedly supports Bill 150 and the proposed amendments to the bill. “With the raised taxes, at least people will think twice about buying cigarettes and a portion of the taxes will go to cancer treatment and to educating people to help them quit,” Aguon said. “The young people at least won’t be able to afford cigarettes so easily and may not develop the habit.”
Aguon was able to win her fight against cancer but insists that Guam’s senators pass the bill immediately without the need for referendum. In her written testimony for Bill 150’s public hearing, Aguon states, “We have entrusted you with making these tough and sometimes unpopular decisions and we hope that you will do the right thing.”
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