Pam Laffin was one of the growing number of young women who suffer and die from tobacco use at a remarkably younger age than most people imagine. Pam started smoking when she was 10 years old, endured asthma and bronchitis as a teen, was diagnosed with emphysema and had a lung transplant at age 24. When Pam realized how very ill she was, she dedicated herself to telling about the problems with tobacco. She appeared in several television segments and spoke in many schools. The medicines she would have to take for the rest of her life gave her “a fat face” and a hump on her back.

Here’s how Pam explained her reason for starting to smoke:

“I saw the movie Grease…and I saw how the character Sandy moved to a new town and was having trouble making friends and then she started smoking and everyone was her friend. So I said, “Ah, that could be a good way to do it.” If someone had given me a crystal ball and said, “Look, this is what’s going to happen” of course I would not have smoked. I had no idea. It didn’t impress anybody that I smoked… and so it didn’t help me in any way that I thought it would and instead it just hurt me in a lot of ways that I never thought would happen.”

Pam would end each school presentation with advice that is valid for anyone who is thinking about smoking a cigarette at anytime:

“Take two minutes; think about everything you have in your life… everything that’s important to you.”

Pam was just 31 years old when she died while awaiting a second lung transplant, leaving two young daughters.