to feel really upset about Caroline ahern and lung cancer

[sarahhammer]

I'm horrified to hear people on the radio showing no sympathy for her, just because she smokes it does not make lung cancer self inflicted!

It was the person who keeps swans in a shed type swannery thing

Even if they thought it they shouldn't have voiced it. Why the need to be so unkind? Self-righteous idiots. This is a real shame

Caroline Aherne is a national treasure. (although not the voice of Dr Hamster, I was gutted to discover).

I love the bittersweet tone of her work and never more than when she works with Craig Cash. They are like The Smiths of comedy or something.

I don't see any judgement at all on this thread (could somebody quote the unkind or unsympathetic posts please?).

Given the thread title, the correlation between smoking and cancer was always going to be discussed here, it's inevitable when a young person gets a terrible disease that their lifestyle is high risk for.

I have dear friends and relatives who have died of illnesses related to lifestyle. I love and mourn them no less, but I don't see how I can ask others to pretend their was no link between their lifestyle and their illness.

I have dear friends and relatives who have died of random, bad luck illnesses too. I'm not naive enough to imagine that nobody with a healthy lifestyle will ever get seriously ill.

Well I hope CA never voted Conservative or she'd get another kicking

Some people on here are just absolute wankers.

Thanks TSSDNCOP

Don't worry Owl lady, it wasn't you who upset me. You sound like you have your own worthwhile cause to dislike Dave. I just struggle to believe that all the judgy people I was faced with were all Torys. When would they have had the time to go around upsetting cancer patients when they are apparently too busy boiling kittens and giving Chinese burns to small children? (Disclaimer - I regularly vote Tory and don't really believe this. My Mum on the other hand hated them.)

I was sitting here thinking that in my experience lung cancer is one of the few illnesses where people feel they have the right to ask questions about your lifestyle choices. Then I remembered all the shitty things that were said about Clarissa Dickson Wright and her weight on here. So I guess there are people who just enjoying feeling superior and passing judgement.

I hope so to Everlong. I'm hope she is surrounded by lots of supportive and loving family and friends.

Gosh, this is sad news. I hope she can be successfully treated.

As someone who lost both parents to smoking-related cancers, I have no sympathy. Educated people know the risks. And as Aherne had already suffered from one form of cancer, you would have thought she would have at least minimised the chance of developing others. Smoking causes cancer and anyone who believes otherwise has their (smokers) head in the sand.

I had cervical cancer. In an argument once, my sister said something to the effect of my deserving it because I'd had multiple sex partners. (Just to clarify, I was hardly promiscuous! - I'd had a couple of long-term relationships that both ended when the guy cheated on me, and a couple of casual relationships.)

We long ago made up from the argument, but I haven't ever forgotten the remark...it was so hurtful.

There is a very fine between acknowledging clear risks for certain cancers and suggesting that people 'deserve' cancer because they ignored those risks. I cannot comprehend the idea that anyone 'deserves' cancer, even the most disgraced of criminals.

My mum has lung cancer. She is dying. She smoked for years. Makes no difference to me. She is still dying. She is only 67.

:(

Bleeurghh I hate the term 'self inflicted' it's so smug and self righteous

This thread reminds me of one a few months ago regarding Stupid Things People Say to the terminally ill, those facing bereavement and the bereaved.

Is there a lack of compassion being shown by those who say it's "self inflicted"? Yes because they are not showing any compassion, they are making themselves feel better.

Oh well, the shitlist spreadsheet grows ever longer.

About what we've come to expect from MN of late.

Windchime- you're all heart, you really are.

Crazynana (and others who have lost/are losing loved ones to this bastard thing) hide the thread. You don't need to read vicious shit like this.

Really sad to read the news yesterday.

For those berating her for smoking.....she hasn't smoked for a few years now and this cancer is related to cancer she had as a child. HTH you when you are feeling all judgey!

crazynanna

My cousin died of lung cancer at 37. He was a smoker. It was still a fucking tragedy.

"Hackmum -as I said upthread (so have many others), 10% of lung cancer is contracted by never smokers like my late DH. That is thousands of people in the UK alone, every year.

It's so glib to say it's just a disease that smokers get, ergo it's self inflicted."

Sorry to hear about your DH. Luckily I didn't say that it's just a disease that smokers get. Smoking, however, is the principal cause of lung cancer, and the overwhelming majority of people who get it do so because they are or used to be smokers. That's why there is a massive public health campaign to stop people smoking. Governments don't put money into these things just for the fun of it.

Acknowledging that a person's lung cancer is caused by smoking doesn't mean they deserve to have it.

I think people like to find a 'cause' for other people's ill health because it makes them feel safer themselves - if you can blame for example the person's weight or smoking or drinking habit for their illness then it means you can stay 'safe' from that illness by not being overweight or drinking or smoking.

But obviously the truth is that despite the fact that drinking, smoking and being overweight contributes to a lot of illness some people are just unlucky and there is NO apparent cause of their illness.
Diabetes type 2 is a case in point - people love to blame obesity because it makes them feel immune when in fact some poor people like my friend's dad have no contributing factor in getting it.

Anyway, it's very tragic whether smoking was the cause or not - 50 is unbelievably young to get such a horrible disease.

People never think it will happen to them despite all the knowledge they have about the risks

Sadly it catches out a lot of people

Newsflash: people never think it will happen to them no matter what.

As the mother of a child who died of cancer, some of the responses on this thread really make me sick.

That's a bit defeatist expat. There are millions of ex-smokers in the world - almost all of whom have been influenced in that choice by the knowledge of the damage it does to your health. Day by day their bodies are recovering and they are getting further away from the risks of a horrible premature death. Yes they could get run over by a bus tomorrow or contract an unpreventable cancer. But all those risks pale by comparison with the magnitude of the risks of smoking, which doubles your risk of dying at any given age, and which will kill half the people who don't quit (and many of the ones who do quit but not early enough). And we have a right to talk about that, and to be furious - not angry with the victims, only their family members really have the right to feel that, but with the people who are still pushing this stuff all around the world in pursuit of profit.

"And we have a right to talk about that, and to be furious - not angry with the victims, only their family members really have the right to feel that, but with the people who are still pushing this stuff all around the world in pursuit of profit."

Yes, that's true. It's a shame that people still point the finger of blame at individuals when there is a huge industry out there making vast amounts of money from selling a product that kills people. They are exactly the same as drug pushers, except for some reason they are not ostracised by polite society.