Rose Lewis, a cancer survivor in support of the proposed smoking ban

Mrs Lewis, who discovered she had lung cancer last year about three weeks after she quit 35 years of smoking, supports the government’s move to pass laws banning public smoking.

She said she applauds Hon Anthony Eden, Health Minister, for moving to ban smoking in public. “I think the health minister has made a bold move to ban smoking in public places,” she said, referring to the deliberations over the introduction of a smoking ban in public places here in the Cayman Islands.

“Nobody is saying that people cannot smoke. This is not about taking away anybody’s right. All we are saying is that you must not smoke around other people,” she said. She pointed out that people who believe that they have the right to smoke where they please must consider that non-smokers have the right to breathe clean air.

“I was shocked when someone commented in the newspaper that people go to bars to smoke. No they don’t – they go there to drink, meet friends, dance and play a bit of pool. Why is it that anytime we are told that we cannot do something we rebel?” she asked.

At age 54, Mrs Lewis said that she was lucky to have discovered the tumour when she did. “I was doing a routine chest x-ray when [the doctor] found a shadow on my lung,” she said, pointing out that a more detailed scan discovered a tumour.

The discovery was traumatic for Mrs Lewis.

“I have always read the warning label on the cigarette boxes and thought that this could never happen to me. I have never been so scared; just the word cancer is very scary. The thought of major invasive surgery is scary,” she told the Cayman Net News.

Mrs Lewis said that she had to change her lifestyle drastically since her cancer. “For my birthday I could not go to a bar or a restaurant because I know there would be smoke there. I wanted to have a few drinks with my friends without having to inhale anybody’s smoke.

I have only one third of my right lung left and I cannot afford to get cancer in the other lung or I will die. I cannot go through the whole process again. I cannot go through chemotherapy, I don’t think I would ever want to go through that whole feeling of being sick everyday again,” she said.

She still considers herself lucky to be alive, as according to her only 12 per cent of people who have lung cancer survive. She said that her family and friends were devastated by the news of the cancer.

Some of her friends quit smoking and started having chest x-rays done. She said during the time when she was doing chemotherapy she refused to wear a wig or a scarf to cover her hair loss.

“I know a lot of parents have had discussions with their children (who attend her swim class) as to why I did not have any hair. If that in turn prevent the children from taking up smoking then it would have been for a good cause,” she said.

Mrs Lewis, who has been living here for 10 years, said the Cayman Islands Cancer Society has helped her considerably.