Change in Programme

Dear Everyone,

We regret to inform you that our programme for February 8th ('One walk - One hope') has been changed due to unavoidable circumstances. As schools and colleges will remain closed up until the 9th, we have not been able to contact the authorities concerned with regards to their participation in the walk.

Hence, in conjunction with the TTDC we have decided to set up stalls at the Tourism and Trade Fair (currently underway at the Island Grounds) in order to spread awareness and mark National Cancer Awareness Day.

The installation at the stall will also have representations from other cancer support groups in the city and will offer information on various types of cancer and their treatment, as well as information for cancer patients,survivors and their families encompassing counseling, physical therapy, alternative therapies and dietary advice.

On display will also be a photo exhibit on the ills of smoking and advice on tobacco cessation. Pamphlets will be handed out by Canstop volunteers to the general public covering all the aspects listed above.

The TTDC expects approximately 35,00 people to attend the trade fair over the course of the day and we look forward to being able to reach a large number of people on the occasion of National Cancer Awareness Day

We hope you find it convenient to attend the Tourism and Trade Fair and can visit Canstop's stall at the fair.For any further enquiries please contact us on 2628-4256 (helpline) or on 98410-61578.

Venue: Island Grounds, Anna Salai
Time: 5:30 to 9:00 pm
Date: 8th February 2009


Click here to see the coverage of Camp He Ho Ha.

One Walk One Hope!

Can-Stop is organizing National Cancer Awareness Day.

“CAN – STOP” is a cancer support group & community based NGO. We believe in providing timely detection and greater awareness of cancer and supporting all those touched by the disease.

“CAN-STOP” is committed to making measurable improvements in the quality of life – physical, psychological, social and spiritual for all cancer survivors, from the time of diagnosis, through treatment and beyond.

Can-Stop brings together survivors, supporters, members of the community and all NGO’s working in Cancer Care together for

“National Cancer Awareness Day”

on : 8th February 2009
at : “Rajarathnam Stadium
time : 2.00 pm to 7.00 pm.


Alongside the walk we have organized a fun-fair mela which will include the following attractions:

Information kiosks on various cancers
Counseling booth
Live folk art performances
Live music
Fun games – face painting, balloon decoration, portrait painting


If your company/organization/school/college would like to be a part of “ One Walk One Hope ” by walking in the event as a team and there by helping to create greater awareness ; please contact us at 044-2628-4256.

"Kick The Butt" - Short Film by Sharad Haksar

As part of our World No Tobacco Day campaign for 2008,renowned photographer Sharad Haksar prepared this visual short to accompany our Photo Exhibition. For those of you in Chennai catch it at Sathyam Cinema's shortly as well as at other theatre venues.

The pictures speak for themselves.

Smoke Signals - Ergo

The evening of May 30 was truly an inspirational one for smokers and non-smokers alike. CanStop organised a play reading, ‘Smoke Signals’ by Madras Players and a photo exhibition headed by Sharad Haksar to commemorate World No-Tobacco Day (May 31).

“There are 184 million tobacco consumers in India,” said Vijaya Bharati, Chairperson of CanStop. “And tobacco kills 50 per cent of its users.” “It is shocking to see children as young as 10 and 12 smoking up to 20 cigarettes a day,” Hemalini Mehta, a volunteer for CanStop, said.

“Nicotine is the most addictive substance,” Mithran Devanesan, an ex-smoker himself, explained. “There are different patterns of smoking that need to be identified and monitored. Support groups are essential if you want to quit.”

As a matter of fact, the Quitters Club does just that. Working along the same lines as the Alcoholics Anonymous Groups, the Club gets together once or twice a week to counsel and help its members.

According to Hemalini Mehta, if a person wants to quit and wants the help of a counsellor to do so, all they had to do was to fill in the Quit Line Entry Form distributed to the audience at the Heritage Centre. “We will contact that person and help them out.”

Directed by Mithran Devanesan, ‘Smoke Signals’ consisted of a series of rib-tickling quotes, songs, and extracts from novels read by P.C. Ramaswamy, Vishalam Ekambaram, Freddy Koikaran, Mithran Devanesan and Sharanya Nair.

Among the most memorable were the Caterpillar and the hookah scene in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Gum,” a short story about a piece of bubblegum that began chewing its chewer.

Though the pieces were light, the gravity of the underlining message was pretty clear by the end of the evening. After all, as Hemmingway once said, “Cigarette smell is awful if you have a nose that can truly smell.”

"Join the Quitters Club" - The Hindu Metro Plus Weekend

It’s like being ruled by an exceptionally smelly little wand. It dictates where you go, what you do, who you hang out with.

Being a smoker must be exhausting. Tearing off every long flight, so you can charge into one of those dreadful little gas chambers to get your fix. Or sneaking out of the office at regular intervals to smoke in the traffic. Or being unable to enjoy a party without lighting up.

Fortunately you can always quit. With ‘World No Tobacco Day’, which is on May 31, just around the corner, this might be a good time to literally kick butt. Arjun Rangarajan, co-ordinator of Can Stop’s anti-smoking campaign, says research has shown that most smokers really do want to quit. “Right now everybody who smokes is at least thinking about quitting,” he says, “I think there’s a lot more awareness, there’s more of a social stigma attached to smoking, and attitudes are definitely changing.”

It helps that it’s getting tougher and tougher to light up, with smoking banned in public places, and most restaurants and coffee shops discouraging smokers. “It makes it harder for people to smoke: giving them less room,” says Arjun, adding, “At the end of the day you can’t pull a cigarette out of their mouths. People should realise that their smoking affects everyone around them.”

As part of Can Stop’s campaign, Chennai photographer Sunder, will be participating in a photo exhibition alongside Sharad Haksar. “For my series for the exhibition I decided to go with pictures of an extremely fit and inspirational, non smoking dancer in his forties, jumping above cigarette smoke and beating age and time,” he says, adding that he doesn’t want to just scare people into giving up smoking, but would much rather try a more positive route.

The photo exhibition will be on at the Sathyam Cinemas on May 31 and June 1, after which it will move around the city as a travelling exhibition.

Meanwhile Can Stop is launching the ‘Quitter’s Club.’ Stating that the idea behind it is to put people who want to quit smoking in touch with each other, Arjun says that a recent survey they did at a rock concert indicated that about 90 per cent of the 200 people who filled their forms were smokers, out of which a large number said they wanted to quit. About 25 actually signed up for the club.

“It’s going to be need based,” he says, “There’s no point just giving lectures.” They’ll help with strategies, motivation and technical needs such as procuring nicotine patches, or gum. (For more details call the Can Stop helpline 26284256.)

SHONALI MUTHALALY

IQ - I Quit! - Mithran Devanesen ( Appeared in The Hindu NXG)

“A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite and leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?” Oscar Wilde in “The Picture of Dorian Grey”

A slave to tobacco myself for over 40 years, I worshipped at the altar of tobacco, like Wilde, smoking 40 cigarettes a day (on a good day and more on a bad day). When you are a smoker, somehow you manage to avoid reading all those articles in the press and the Reader’s Digest on the dangers of smoking.

My two brothers — both doctors — stopped sending me birthday cards. Instead they sent cuttings on cancer; to no avail. Those just landed in the wastepaper basket. The only respite in reducing the number of cigarettes was when I travelled to the U.K., the U.S. and Canada where they slammed a ’sin tax’ on cigarettes and the cost puts a huge dent in your pocket.

I did quit many years ago for two years. I was at a cocktail party and I thought, *It’s been two years; I’ve kicked the habit. So let me have a drag.” By the end of the evening, I had smoked four cigarettes; by the end of the week I was back at 40!

Nicotine is highly addictive but pressure from my brothers and my family doctor drove me to try to quit. I tried The Gum, The Patch, Holistic Healing, Reiki, Ayurveda and even Hypnosis. With each try, my smoking was like a yo-yo. Down on the first day of treatment and up again two days later. I used to dread long-distance flights but smokers are a crafty lot and will sniff out a smoking area even in the strictest airports at home and abroad.

Finally it was the US of A and my sense of pride that made me quit. I was visiting my daughter in Denver and she took me out to lunch at a very fancy Italian restaurant — fine Irish linen tablecloths and napkins, pure silver cutlery, crystal glasses and fine bone china.

After one of the finest meals I’ve ever eaten (I am bit of an epicure), I wanted to smoke and was told the only place I could do so was at the back of the restaurant. I went there, lit up and looked around at my surroundings — rotting garbage with accompanying aroma. I thought to myself , “You have really debased yourself coming here for a smoke after the plush ambience of the restaurant.”

I stubbed out my cigarette and threw the pack and lighter into the garbage can. And that was it. IQ and have stayed quit. Today I can sit in a room full of smokers and the thought of a cigarette does not even cross my mind. I went through no withdrawals, no case of the heebie-jeebies ;just sheer determination.

So if you want to quit and stay quit you can do it. Join the Quitters Club and, as the Beatles said, “You can get by with a little help from your friends.”

Stay Away From a KIller - The Hindu NXG

It’s not stylish, it’s not cool: that’s the message as this year’s World No Tobacco Day on on May 31 works for a Tobacco Free Youth . R. KRITHIKA

It’s a familiar enough sight: “C’mon, I dare you! Take a puff. Don’t be a sissy; it’s not going to hurt…” And nine out of 10 youngsters fall a prey to their friend’s machinations. But you know it’s that Lone Ranger, the one that didn’t pick up the killer stick, who deserves the rounds of applause. ‘Cos it takes guts to stand up to your peers and say, “No, I won’t.”

Everyone’s read reams about killer tobacco and its effects on the human system but it doesn’t seem to have any impact. “That’s because of the ads,” says Dr. Vijaya Bharati Rangarajan of the NGO Can-Stop, a cancer support group that also works to spread the word about the ill-effects of tobacco. “Just look at those obviously fit and healthy people taking a puff. The message — the wrong one — is that smoking doesn’t affect you.” And then goes on to ask rhetorically, “Do you think anyone would pick up a cigarette if they saw these wasted and diseased bodies smoking?”

Even as the incidence of smoking falls in the developed countries, it’s on the rise in developing countries like India. Obviously the tobacco lobby doesn’t give up easy. There are laws against sale of tobacco products to minors, against smoking in public places … but who’s enforcing these. Kids are picking up the habit at a younger age today; as low as six or seven.

And there’s now way you can walk away and say, “it’s not my problem”. If you’re around a smoker, it is your problem. The smoke you inhale will cause as much damage to you as it does to smoker. The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 700 million people will die of second-hand smoke, most of them being children. If that’s the amount of damage second-hand smoke, think of the figures for smokers!

Taxes and bans may help deal with this but there’s something you can do as well: Quit or help others to quit. We know that smoking is contagious, but guess what quitting is contagious too. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that those who’re promising never to pick up another one influence friends, co-workers and relations. This study followed 12,000 people over three decades from 1971 to 2003 — many friends, relatives and colleagues of those studied also joined making the final tally 53,228 relationships — and found that people tend to quit in clusters.



Now, I don’t know if this info influenced Can-Stop but they’re beginning a Quitter’s Club on the lines of Smokers Anonymous. This self-help group with a difference is meant to motivate those treading that slippery path to Quitdom. Those who’ve kicked the habit can give pep talks and encourage their less-fortunate friends. Others will pitch in medical advice, strategies and whatever else the quitters need to stay away from the butt.

And, of course, there’s a lot for the youth. The rock show last Saturday should have sent home the “say no to cigarettes” message quite effectively. There’s more this week: a photo exhibition, which sees Chennai’s well known photographer Sharad Haksar exhibiting his take on the issue. Then the Madras Players, Chennai’s and India’s oldest English theatre group, will use drama to tell you all about tobacco (they’ve gone all the way back to King James I of England to get their matter). Look out for the sticker campaign from May 31, screening and counselling sessions, talks and much more.

If you want to get personally involved, then join Youth Can, the youth wing of Can-Stop. There’re no age limits or criterion. You get to help organise Can-Stop’s events, spread awareness in schools and colleges, talk to your peers and parents aboput the perils of smoking. So what’re you waiting for?

Want to join Can-Stop’s Quitters Club or Youth Can? Call their helpline 26284256 between 10.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. or e-mail canstop@smfhospital.org Can-Stop functions from Dr. Rangarajan Memorial Hospital, Shanti Colony, 4th Avenue, Anna Nagar West, Chennai 40. Website: www.canstop.org The Quitters Club will function at from their Resource Centre at 20A, D’Silva Road, Mylapore, Chennai 04. Ph: 24993515




About Can-Stop

* Can-Stop (Cancer Support Therapy to Overcome Pain) is a community-based, voluntary oragnisation dedeciated to helping cancer-affected people by offering counselling, information, advice, consolation and listening to not just the patients but also their families and friends.
* Can-Stop works with patients at the Institute of Child Health and Children’s Hospital, Egmore; Government Hospital for Women and Children; and the Government General Hospital.
* The projects include educational therapy for children, occupational therapy for the mothers and women, counselling and awareness and screening camps; nutrition projects, blood bank and drug bank.
* Can-Wish tries to fulfil the wishes of critically-ill children up to six years.
* Sponsor A Child helps children with a good prognosis by supplying them essential drugs for one year through individual sponsors.

Why you should say no

* No form of tobacco is safe: not cigarettes, cigars, gutka or pipes.
* Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world. It kills up to 50 per cent of its regular users.
* India has 184 million consumers with 55,000 children falling prey to it every year. Each year, 8,00,000 people in India die due to tobacco-related diseases.
* Smoking harms not only the smoker but also those around him/her who breathe the cigarette smoke.Second-hand smoke causes as many as 3,00,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia among infants each year.
* Second-hand smoke increases a child’s chances of middle ear problem, causes wheezing and coughing and worsens asthma conditions.
* Second-hand smoke causes heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory problems among other non-smokers.