• 5/6/2005
  • Hokinsville, KY
  • Karen Campbell
  • Kentucky New Era

Rick Bender started using tobacco when he was 12.

At 26, he was diagnosed with mouth cancer. He lost half of his jaw and a third of his tongue. He was given two years to live.

“I am lucky to be alive today,” said the Cadiz resident. “I want to use my second chance to tell as many people as I can about the dangers of tobacco of all kinds.”

Bender travels to schools around the country spreading his message. He also takes his “No Snuff” campaign to corporations. He speaks to professional baseball players about the importance of being role models and has been part of public service announcements on MTV.

The underlying theme of his presentation tells of the dangers of spit tobacco, but he stresses that tobacco is tobacco and in any form it kills.

“It does not matter, roll it in a cigarette, stuff it in a pipe or just (put) a pinch between your cheek and gum. It is all the same and it will kill you,” Bender told the children.

In 45 minutes he told North Drive Middle School students his story — how he got started, what happened because of his use and the effects he lives with today. But he also talked to them about other people’s stories and showed them slides of warning signs www.sfa.univ-savoie.fr.

As he spoke to sixth-graders about operations, physical effects that never go away, and being given two years to live when he was in his late 20s, he asked those who had tried tobacco to raise their hands. About a dozen did.

When he asked them to raise their hands if they knew someone who used all the time, almost the entire sixth-grade raised their hands.

According to the World Health Organization, one in five teens 13- to 15-years-old smokes. About 50 percent of those who start smoking in adolescence will smoke for at least 15 years.

Bender visited Christian County, Hopkinsville and North Drive middle schools this week in a program sponsored by the Christian County Health Department.

The program served as an introduction to World No Tobacco Day slated for May 31 and the culmination of the Kentucky Adolescent Tobacco Prevention Project and Kick Butts Day.

“It probably encouraged a lot of younger kids to not smoke or quit if they did,” said sixth-grader Lauren Johnson. “They should quit cause it could give them cancer the day they start.”

She said it’s an important message at their age because peer pressure is so strong.

Principal Mike Beck said the visual image Render presented on what tobacco can do is one of the most powerful learning tools.

“The middle school years are the years they are hungry for direction and need to get reinforced,” Beck said.

Seventh-grader Deaudrey Civils said he wouldn’t use tobacco even if his friends were pressuring him to after hearing Bender speak.

“I wouldn’t do it ‘cause it’s bad,” Civils said.

Bender said he wants to give children the information he never had so they can make an educated choice.

“You’re the only one who can make that decision,” Bender told the students. “I hope you’re prepared to live or die with it.”