• 2/12/2004
  • Lisa Patterson
  • Daily World

A little white dot on the side of Cliff Crawford’s tongue got a lot more significant Tuesday.

Mouth wide – opened, tongue sticking out, the Aberdeen High School ninth – grader asked Rick Bender to take a look. Bender told him to talk with his parents, see a doctor and quit chewing “spit tobacco,” a habit Crawford says he began at the age of 7.

“I’m not a doctor,” Bender said. “But I wouldn’t take any chances.”

Missing part of his tongue, all of his bottom teeth and much of his chin, Bender’s words held more weight with Crawford and his fellow Aberdeen High School students than any wordy warning on the side of chew cans that so many of the students admittedly pack.

Bender barely survived mouth cancer, diagnosed in April of 1989, just days before his 27th birthday. He spoke to students at several area schools this week to share is horrific near – death experience.

OCF Note: What we would like to know is where were the parents responsible for the bringing up of this 7 year old when he started using spit tobacco? How can we make a difference in the incidence and death rate from this disease when parents allow this to occur? How proud they will be of their parenting abilities when their child finds out that oral cancer is now part of his life, due to their lack of involvement or plain stupidity. No matter how you try to spin this… it is just wrong.