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>> You feel separated from, like, the world.
I mean, you just, like, you feel like you're the only one.
>> And it's on your mind all the time.
>> Narrator: This is the Tree House Gang.
>> I get really mad when she has to suffer.
>> Narrator: It's a club no kid wants to join.
>> My name's Andrew and my dad has cancer.
>> Narrator: To be a member, you have to have a parent who is
surviving or has died from cancer.
>> You may think, like, they're on a vacation and they'll
come back.
>> Narrator: The Tree House Gang, at Atlanta's DeKalb
Medical Center, was formed to help grieving children.
Dr. Holly Middleton facilitates the group.
>> When kids come to the Tree House Gang for the first
time, usually, they are in shock.
When a family experiences illness like cancer, it calls
into question everything that that family has ever thought
was true.
>> Narrator: The only truth for children whose parent has cancer
may be that they never know what will happen next.
>> I know we always say "I love you" to my mom right
before we go to school or anything, just, like, in case
something would happen.
>> Narrator: More than two years ago, Drue's mother, Ann,
was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Within a year following her diagnosis, Ann's cancer
progressed to stage 4 -- or advanced cancer,
and had spread to her lymph nodes and spine.
>> I was diagnosed on Valentine's Day 2002, and
haven't had a cigarette since.
>> Narrator: After surgery, debilitating chemotherapy,
and radiation, and an arsenal of drugs, Ann's disease is
in remission.
>> The bottom line was, I was willing to do whatever it
took to live.
It is an incredible experience to get the kind of
death sentence that I got.
>> Narrator: And the death sentence is staggering for
Americans who smoke.
Dr. Richard Carmona is the Surgeon General
of the United States.
>> Well, smoking causes about 440,000 deaths per year
in our country.
But for every person that dies, there's twenty others who have
serious disease associated with smoking.
>> Narrator: The newly released Surgeon General's report
chronicles the health effects of smoking.
>> There are many things new in this report.
We have strong information, now, that just about every organ in
your body is affected by smoking.
>> Narrator: The list of diseases caused by smoking has
been expanded to include -- abdominal aortic aneurysm;
cataracts; pneumonia; periodontal disease;
acute myeloid leukemia; as well as cancers of the
***, kidney, pancreas, and stomach.
>> Carmona: Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of
death in the United States.
On average, smoking shortens your life by 13 to 14 years.
That means you won't get to see your grandchildren or your
children as long as you'd like.
>> Narrator: Ann's husband, David.
>> All of the patterns I had established, all the
expectations I had for the way our lives were going to go were
all out the window at that moment.
And so I think I was mad at everything --
me, her, the kids.
Ask them, they'll tell you.
>> I was always trying to get you to stop before it happened.
It hasn't changed my opinion about smoking one bit.
I've always hated it.
>> Narrator: Like most children, Ann's son, Jamie, has strong
feelings about his mother's smoking and lung cancer.
>> Middleton: I think, when children have a
parent who has lung cancer, there's a guilt feeling involved
that's a little bit deeper and a little bit heavier than with
other children who have parents who have cancer that's unrelated
to any activity that they've had in their lives.
And what I mean by that is, the children are so mad at their
parent for smoking.
How could you do this to yourself?
Because look what you're doing to my life.
You are ruining my life because you're sick and you might die
and then you leave me, and you did that.
There's that anger, but then, right on the heels of that is,
oh, I shouldn't be feeling that.
>> It's a terrible tragedy, to lose a parent.
And when you're young and you lose that sense of stability and
security in your life, it is terrible.
>> Bye. Love you.
>> I love you. Be safe.
Have a good day.
There's a lot about cancer that's about fear.
And, of course, I'm afraid it'll come back.
So I try very much to acknowledge the fear and then
let it go because it gets in the way of enjoying right now.
And right now, I'm really fine.