Introducing Carolyn Westhues, Age 60, St. Louis MI:
Carolyn Westhues has been a St. Louis resident for thirty-two years. Carolyn, who grew up in a family of smokers, started smoking at age fifteen and became a pack-a-day smoker for twenty-five years. She made hundreds of futile quit attempts, but decided to make her first serious quit attempt with a friend. Still with additional support, she was only able to quit for five months. There was even a time when things were so bleak that she thought she might never be able to quit for good.
Finally in 1988, Carolyn and her husband, David, a thirty-year smoker, were able to quit for good, together. Nine months after quitting, Carolyn felt a calling to help others who were trying to quit by working as a facilitator for the American Lung Association. She thought to herself, “maybe if I help others, I can help myself.” Thirteen years after Carolyn and her husband quit, the couple received shocking news that David had been diagnosed with lung cancer after being smoke-free for over a decade. In 2003, he passed away, leaving Carolyn widowed with three kids and nine grandchildren. Carolyn knows first-hand, how devastating the impact of smoking can be on one’s life and that not everyone can escape the dire consequences of smoking. She is thankful she and her husband “never gave up on the quitter we knew we had in us.”
Today, Carolyn has been smoke free for almost twenty years. After surviving her husband’s death and battling breast cancer twice, Carolyn has truly learned that life is a gift and that every moment should be treasured. Carolyn is involved in the Quitter in You campaign because “quitting smoking is one of the hardest things I’ve ever accomplished, and is one of the things which I am most proud of,” and she wants others to know that they can do it too. Since becoming an ex-smoker, Carolyn has learned the importance of staying active, taking up bike riding and regularly working out. Her message to smokers who have tried to quit many times is “don’t give up, ever, there is a quitter in you, you can learn how to quit and stay quit.”
Following her tenure as a facilitator at the American Lung Association, she has been working there as a master trainer and independent contractor since 2002. She is actively involved in the community on the Board of Directors for the St. Louis Breast Cancer Coalition, the American Cancer Society’s speaker’s bureau, and is former president of NHRA and AMS.
To get support for the quitter in you, go to quitterinyou.org or call 1-800-LungUSA.