For many, Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the important role fathers play in our lives.
For many, Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the important role fathers play in our lives.
For some fathers, it’s a time when they reflect on the life choices they make for the benefit of their families.
Despite the known health effects, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the country, accounting for roughly 443,000 deaths each year, with 1,200 deaths each year in Hawaii alone.
Nearly 100,000 men in Hawaii continue to smoke today.
“Around particular holidays, like Father’s Day, some smokers start thinking about their families more, which can help them make the decision to quit. The Hawaii Tobacco Quitline provides free tools — like nicotine patches and gum — and certified Quit Coaches that create customized quit plans to help people to quit smoking,” said Pedro Haro, spokesperson for the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline.
Randy Horne of Waimea used the Hawaii Quitline’s phone and online program to quit smoking — which might have saved his life.
During a kayaking trip with his son, “all of a sudden, I couldn’t catch my breath. My heart was racing — felt like I had just run a marathon,” he said about the incident. “I thought this is it, I’m going down.”
Horne was diagnosed with heart disease — a condition smokers are two to four times more likely to develop than nonsmokers.
“When I was in the emergency room, I told them that I had quit smoking using the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline and they said ‘that literally saved your life,’” he said. “I was 18 when my dad died [of a smoking-related illness] at 50 and then, here I find myself at age 56 and my son is 12 and I’m in the hospital for something that could have killed me if I’d continued smoking. I couldn’t imagine putting my son through burying me.”
To help fathers such as Horne, the Quitline is launching an educational campaign aimed at fathers through television and social media.
“Whether you’re a father who wants to quit smoking, or a concerned son or daughter, the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline is here to help people quit for good,” Haro said. “The Quitline has already helped over 60,000 people in Hawaii and all services are phone-based coaching programs are free, 100 percent confidential.
“Smokers who use the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline are up to 14 times more likely to quit for good than people who quit on their own.”
The Hawaii Tobacco Quitline can be accessed at 1-800-QUIT-NOW, or by visiting www.hawaiiquitline.org. Services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in a multitude of languages through translator services.