Debi Austin, Ph.D.
Tobacco Educator-Motivational Speaker
debi@debiaustin.com
818.388.7958 cell
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California in the 1960’s and managed to get into all the things the times had to offer, both the good and the bad. Like most young people of that era, I was in a hurry to grow up. I started smoking in 1963 at age 13. I thought it made me look older and it looked cool, at least in my mind. Now, it is hard to look cool with a hole in my throat the size of a quarter.
My parents were normal for parents of teenagers. My mother stopped smoking in 1955 under doctor’s orders. She had smoked all her life; my grandparents grew tobacco. My dad continued to smoke one pack of Camel non-filters a day until he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 54.
In 1992, at the age of 42, I was diagnosed with squamos cell carcinoma; I had cancer of the larynx. The surgery would remove my vocal cords. I was not prepared for this. I am sure that my doctor explained everything to me; I am also sure that after hearing the word cancer not much else got through. Very few people had good cancer stories in those days. In the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, many of us after graduation from high school and college were off to change the world. We marched and demonstrated for peace, equal rights, civil rights, children’s rights, and personal freedoms. With our picket signs and petitions in one hand and a cigarette in the other, we were making changes. Not realizing our right to breathe fresh air was the one right we were denying ourselves, and the changes we were making in our lives would have tremendous consequences.
Debi Austin, Ph.D.
I had the opportunity to travel for years as a student, as an artist, for my job, and on a personal search for answers. I continued community activities by helping to set up a Battered Women’s Center and food bank for the elderly and by working on children’s rights, juvenile court reform, and the need for education. There were times I had an art studio and a sign shop. In each case, I would have to leave my work place to go outside and smoke, and it still did not register for me that I was doing so much damage to myself. I wrote two books on “street life” in two major cities and yet never related the use of tobacco as part of the effect of this choice of life style.
Growing up in an era where smoking was a socially acceptable habit/act, society was numb to its impact on our lives even when we were told the truth. In 1963 anyone with a quarter could buy cigarettes, by 1967 we were seeing the warning labels on the side of cigarette packs, and by the early ‘70’s they were changing the structure/material for filters. We watched sales to young adults almost triple for RJR with the placement of Joe Camel as a “spokesman” so to speak, and the general public still did not worry. I know that personally I saw this as the least of the evils that one faces growing up. Oh, so little did I know that a simple product that had been part of my life since childhood was going to drastically alter my life and dreams in adulthood. But change my life forever it did.
The State of California contacted me in 1996. They were getting ready to launch the most aggressive “in your face” anti-smoking campaign to date. My first reaction was, “No!” I had no intention of telling the world I could not control my habits. Then I looked at my niece Joy, the love of my life, who was then 4 years old, but born only 48 days after my surgery. I found courage through her to do the PSA (Public Service Announcement), and because of her, I found the strength to finally quit smoking. Of all the things they could take from me with this habit, they would never get her!
I cannot imagine a job/profession or situation that is more rewarding or fulfilling than what I have been given the opportunity to do. I have spoken in schools K-12, Universities, lock down facilities, on a Federal Reservation, City Council Meetings, closed chambers, and all forms of media regarding the effects of tobacco in our lives and on our communities. I have had the opportunity to meet with young people who realize they can win the “war on tobacco” and understand this is a war in their own towns, on their own streets, and very often in their own homes.
“When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters…” ALA
