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Sneak Attack!

Nicotine catches you off guard... in a moment of weakness.

I don't think anybody starts smoking by saying to themselves, " I want to be a smoker".

It goes more like this...

* you get some pressure from friends, or
* you're feeling sad or lonely or bored or anxious about a test, or
* you're already hooked on nicotine from Secondhand Smoke, or
* you're angry and you want to do something to rebel,

and in a weak moment you forget about what you know and you give in.

"I guess just one won't hurt," you rationalize.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

It's the first one that changes the rest of your life!

The damage begins with the first puff, and it only gets worse.

So next time you see someone smoking and you think they look rugged and independent., remember that their cigarette is the symbol of their weakness; weakness to take the first one and weakness because they can't quit.

Note: Like nicotine, cancer can also make a sneak attack. One day you're happy and healthy...a month later, you're dead... if you're lucky.

Other cancers are agonizingly painful and take a very long time to kill you. My mother prayed every day that God would take her and relieve her of her physical suffering, release my father from the burden of caring for her, and put an end to the financial drain on the family's savings. She made this prayer for more than two years.

Don't assume that, just because you feel good, the cigarettes aren't hurting you. By the time you see symptoms, it's usually too late.

A friend had gone on a 7-mile hike in the Cascade Mountains near Seattle. He felt fine, but a routine physical check-up a few days later revealed irreversible lung cancer. A month later, his friends were attending his funeral.

See Bryan's Story