Yes, I lost my father to smoking. He started smoking when he was 8yrs old. He died when he was 69. Due to his smoking he had emphasema reall
y bad. The last yr of his life he was on an oxygen machine. This was a man that was a workaholic. He was always doing something. His last yr while on oxygen he never went anywhere. He couldn't even walk to the mail box without gasping for air. He had the machine on 99% of the time. His last yr of life was hell. His 1 yr anniversary is sun and I get so made that he left me. I am 47 and he was my pillar and I miss him so. When one smokes and likes to smoke (like my father), they will not quit until there ready too. I am sorry and hope your family member quits soon. I was a smoker from 14 yrs old to 27 and I quit.

My dad died due to complications of smoking. He was a chain smoker and died at an early age. He drinks a lot too. I swore that I will never marry a guy who smokes but I ended up with one who smokes a lot. I tried to convince my husband to quit but managed to reduce it for 3 mos but because of work pressure, he's back to smoking again. Gave up on telling him to quit for I will just become a nagger and I think that is not nice. I believe that a smoker will quit when he is ready.

I'm wondering if being suseptible to lung cancer when smoking is a genetic thing... My dad smoked from the time he was 12 years old until about 2 years before he died. He died at 87 from parkinson's complications and never had a problem with his lungs in his entire life. My mother is now 77 and has smoked from the time she was a teenager. She also has no problems with her breathing, and in fact is in excellent health. My self, I quit after 15 years. But not for my health- I just got tired of the taste. I know it's hard to hear and maybe not every case is the same- but there are some who smoke for most of their lives with no problems. (my sympathy to the ones who have lost loved ones- no matter what the cause.)

I too have lost a loved one due to lung cancer. My mom smoked for as long as I can remember and it started in her early teens. The way we found out she had lung cancer was she was experiencing abnormal behaviors when she would lay down. The world would spin and she was very dizzy. She thought that her vision was going so she went to the eye doctor and got a pair of glasses. A few days passed and she continued to get even sicker and could not stop vomiting. We took her to the emergency department where they did a cat scan and found out she had a brain tumor. She was scheduled in to have it removed a few days later. They did a full body scan to see if there was any other cancer cells in her body. If it starts in the brain, it does not spread anywhere else in the body but they had to make sure that it did or did not start in her brain. The results came back and it showed a spot on her left lung. Which meant that it started as lung cancer. She went through so many treatments and operations. She had one tumor removed from her brain, and her left lung removed. We thought she was going to be fine but at a regular checkup, they found another tumor in her brain that was inoperatable. More radiation and chemo came and she began to get weaker and weaker. She was on an oxygen tank for a few months after the operation on her lung. Although the tumor in her head did decrease in size, it never went away. Then she started experiencing pain in her lower back and went to the doctor for that. The cancer had spread into her back causing bone cancer. She lost her appetite and went down to about 85 pounds. She was never a heavy woman to begin with. Probably 140 at her highest. She suffered for 3 years like this and the doctors were amazed on how long she actually fought for. Three weeks before she passed away, she fell down three stairs and broke her arm. Her bones were so fragile and we had to take her to emerg. She ended up staying in the hospital because it was getting so hard to take care of her at home. I am married and live on my own so I could not be with her every day. The problem with the hospitals is that they pump you full of medicine and I think that although she was extemely sick, it was not the cancer that killed her, it was an over dose of morphine. She would holusinate and think there were animals and such in her room. Sadest thing to watch!! I stayed right beside her day and night for the week before. I still have visions of when she took her last breathe. I am sorry if this seems to graphic for some but this is so serious and maybe if you read this, and you are a smoker you will consider quitting. She was only 54 years old when she passed away and one year just passed in september. I was 26 when she died and it has been the hardest thing to over come and it still deeply saddens me even while writting this. She will never know my children and I miss calling her to tell her about my day good or bad. It's as though I lost my best friend. Please tell you family member that it can happen to anyone at any age. You don't have to be 70 or 80 to become sick with this aweful disease. My father still is a heavy smoker and you would think watching my mom go though what she did would make him quite but it's not always that easy. They have to want to quite and bugging them to is pointless. I think he continues to smoke because of the stress from it all. I wish you all the luck!!