Lifelong Smoker Quits as Wilmot Program Reaches 1,000th Milestone

Bernell Jones, 75, was sitting with her brother in a nursing home in Florida last year when she made the profound decision to quit smoking cigarettes.

She and her brother had been lifelong smokers. He was recovering from a stroke.

“I’m looking at him not being able to do anything. It was so sad,” she recalls. “And I see it on his face: He wanted a cigarette. I made up my mind right then and there. He’s not going to smoke, and neither am I.”

Her large family had experienced much loss, and she was ready to make changes to preserve her own health.

After returning home to Rochester from that trip, something else happened that confirmed Jones’ decision. She was working in her yard on a sweltering day and began sweating intensely. It didn’t feel like a normal summer sweat, so she visited her doctor and discovered that her blood pressure was dangerously high. She had been trying to wean herself off cigarettes but had not been entirely successful.

Her physician referred her to Wilmot Cancer Institute’s Tobacco Cessation Program, and now she is officially a former smoker. She joins more than 1,000 others who have sought help from Wilmot to quit.

“I decided that if I’m going to make it in this world, I’ve got to quit,” Jones says.

She also began walking regularly, and she deposits the money she used to spend on Benson & Hedges into a “piggy jar.”

“I needed to straighten up and do something. Now I sleep better, I feel better, and I smell better,” she says.

It has not been easy to shake a habit that began when she was 17 years old. A nicotine patch and the counselors at Wilmot helped her to ease the desire to smoke when she felt cravings or was stressed. She slipped twice but regained her strength with prayer and a church friend who helped her to stay accountable.

“I can handle it now,” Jones says, even when life is difficult.

Wilmot’s Smoking Cessation Program

In February, Wilmot’s Tobacco Cessation Program enrolled its 1,000th patient.

Francisco Cartujano Barrera, MD

Led by Francisco Cartujano Barrera, MD, and founded by him and Paula Cupertino, PhD, the program is vital to reducing the high cancer rates in the 27-county region that Wilmot serves in central and western New York.

Lung cancer and other malignancies are closely related to smoking, and upstate New York has higher rates of tobacco usage than state and national averages.

The program is free and open to anyone in Wilmot’s catchment area. It offers up to 10 weeks of nicotine replacement therapy for free, and regular contact via text messages with experts in tobacco treatment.

“We are very proud of reaching a 40% quit rate,” says Cartujano, assistant director of Wilmot’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement. “It can take people as many as 20 or 30 attempts before they actually quit, so to have helped hundreds in our region stop using tobacco is meaningful.”

While helping 1,000 patients is a worthy achievement, the team is not slowing down.

“To see our program is having a positive impact on our community is wonderful,” says Gabriella Alvarez, tobacco treatment specialist with the program. “The program has seen tremendous growth, and I can’t wait to see how many more people we can support in the years to come.”