Smoker gets cancer, turns anti-tobacco advocate

By Lilita Balane, Newsbreak | 05/09/2009 10:01 AM

Emer Rojas, 50, makes the rounds at schools in Metro Manila and key cities across the country, encouraging young people to avoid smoking. He’s not a doctor or a health worker, but he is a credible speaker on the ill effects of smoking.

More than six years ago, the lectures he did were for the Philippine Trade Training Center at the Department of Trade and Industry. He was also a regular resource person on information technology for DWBR FM Business Radio, and owner of an internet service provider business in Manila.

Then he lost his voice when he contracted smoking-related cancer.

Rojas, a chain smoker since he was 18, was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in November 2002. Almost immediately, he had his larynx, a source of vocal tone in speech, removed by surgery. In January 2003, he underwent another operation to widen his stoma, a mouth-like opening on his neck.

The medical expenses left a drain on the family’s pocket, he says. They initially spent around P150,000 on hospital check-ups and examinations, including full anesthesia and biopsy, and P500,000 for his surgeries and two months of radiotherapy. When the disease recurred in December 2003, he had to shell out P1.5 million for chemotherapy sessions at the Makati Medical Center.

Like other types of cancers, laryngeal cancer might return after treatment, Rojas says, so he still spends P5,000 to P16,500 every month to monitor his condition. The expenses are for testing his blood chemistry, ultrasound, CT scan, or magnetic resonance imaging.

“Having cancer drains the family’s financial reserves, as well as prevents one from earning a living,” Rojas says with the aid of an electrolarynx, a device pressed against the skin of the neck to produce vocal sounds. Because of his treatment, Rojas’s income has shrunk and he has only his savings to sustain him.

During the time when he was battling cancer, the call center industry started thriving. Rojas says he could have expanded his IT business into a call center, given his professional experience—he was quality engineer at a leading telecommunication company in the Philippines for 18 years. He didn’t have the strength and the capital for expansion.

Cancer also changed his lifestyle. He says: “Losing one’s voice is like losing your sight or hearing. It is recognized as one of the permanent disabilities in the Philippines. It affected me as a radio announcer and a mentor in training institutions. It also prevents me from doing the normal business communications and chores. At first, [other people] do not understand me; eventually, they will. But it will never be the same again.”

Rojas misses the time when he could still travel. Now, he can no longer play basketball or tennis, afraid that he might break a bone.

“I miss my social life. I was always with my peers, having a cup of coffee, talking,” he says. “When we are in a public place and it’s too noisy, my friends won’t understand me. So I keep quiet or I just talk to them through email.”

Imagine Rojas’s medical expenses and economic losses, multiplied by millions of Filipinos who get sick or die prematurely from smoking-related diseases.

Initial estimates by Newsbreak, based on comparative data from the National Tobacco Administration and health studies, show that the government collects an average of P25 billion a year in taxes from tobacco products. However, the population loses almost six times that amount to the treatment of smoking-related diseases, lost wages of smokers when they skip work when sick, and shortened income stream when they die earlier than the average lifespan.

Rojas learned this lesson the hard way, and he wants to spare the youth—the new target market of cigarette companies—from a similar experience. In 2003, he joined the Philippine Laryngectomy Club (PLC), a group that helps rehabilitate laryngeal cancer patients, and became its president.

PLC’s activities that brought him to schools as speaker gave him the idea to form the New Vois Association in 2007. It focuses on PLC’s anti-smoking advocacy and networking activities.

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