I would like to say something on smoking i am recovering from cancer of the tongue and smoked from when i was sixteen ,if you were sixteen you were allowed to smoke at my school in break periods in the smoke room with the teachers which we did , this was a grammar school at which i stayed till i was nearly eighteen happily smoking away ,the teachers did it so it must be OK , perhaps i should sue them for a bad education (better at smoking than grammar you poss have noticed ) anyway i smoked until i was told i had cancer then stopped , then started again telling myself it would be OK till i started treatment ,then stopped again this was in march this year while i was in treatment i was so ill i could not smoke even though i watched my wife smoke who is a nurse( it never ceases to amaze me how many in our health service smoke ) , the problem is now i am feeling better it is almost as hard not to start smoking again as it was having cancer ,i have spent hours on the Internet trying to find some info on smoking ( in moderation ) would possibly not that harmful or perhaps cigars or a pipe maybe ,it is as hard for a long term smoker to give up smoking as it is to fight this disease so i certainly would not criticize any one with cancer for not being able to stop it hard enough fighting the cancer, hopefully as the recover (if they do) they will see that they are a lot more likely for it to come back if they carry on , i am not smoking now but i hope i can carry on not smoking i have had a go but it tasted horrible so i now i would have to teach myself again ,what i am trying to say is leave people alone with there smoke problem they know what they are doing let them get on with it , and if any one finds a site that says smoking is good for you let me know , and lets have some moaning about drinking because you are just as likely to get throat cancer through drinking ( well nearly ) and i don't think i will ever give that up , cheer everybody Allan


age 52 heavy drinker and heavy smoker stage 111 squamous cell at base of tongue trying to give them all up ,8 lot of cetuximab and 35 lots of radiation , gave up smoking at the start of treatment. only drink now in moderation