Tomas swears to quit smoking

CEBU - Because cigarettes were said to have been the reason he was afflicted with cancer in his urinary bladder, Mayor Tomas Osmeña has promised to quit smoking.

“Stop na g’yod… I believe that smoking is the one that caused the cancer,” Osmeña said in a text message to The FREEMAN.

The mayor’s family and friends have advised him to stop smoking and Osmeña reportedly promised to heed the advice. Osmeña’s close friends described the mayor as a “changed smoker.” He used to consume packs of cigarettes a day.

Medical experts say smoking can cause cancer, emphysema, and heart disease and can shorten the life of a person by 10 years or more.

But smoking is reportedly a hard habit to break because tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive.

Like addiction to heroin or other addictive drugs, the body and mind quickly become so used to the nicotine in cigarettes that a person needs to have it just to feel normal.

Osmeña already underwent surgical operations at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to remove the cancer on his urinary bladder.

He is scheduled to undergo chemotherapy and another surgery at a famous cancer center in Houston, Texas after his short stay in Cebu this week.

Osmeña will be in Cebu Friday and will deliver a state of the city address. He will return to Houston the next day to undergo chemotherapy, which will require him to be confined in the hospital two times a week. — Rene U. Borromeo/JMO (THE FREEMAN)