Cancer survivor joins fight at State House to raise tobacco-sales age

It was nearly 20 years ago, but Carol Clark of Gloucester clearly remembers the day a diagnosis changed her life forever — she had Stage 2 breast cancer.

“It was scarier than words,” said Clark, now 62. “I just wanted to get it taken care of and get on with my life.”

Six rounds of chemotherapy and 33 rounds of radiation later, Clark was declared cancer-free. But getting on with her life meant more than just going back to work full time as a real estate paralegal: From then on, she would prevent others from experiencing their own cancer diagnoses, and enduring those brutal treatments.

Clark is one of 100 cancer survivors, patients and family members who will descend on the State House tomorrow to lobby for legislation that would raise the commonwealth’s tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21.

House Bill 4109 — an act to protect youth from the health risks of tobacco and nicotine addiction — would also extend smokefree workplace restrictions to e-cigarettes, and ban tobacco sales at pharmacies.

It isn’t just Clark’s own experience that will bring her to the State House. Though she has only had two cigarettes in her life, her grandmother died of smoking-induced emphysema. And she has known several people along the way who have died from cancer.

“I’ve lost a lot of people to this disease,” Clark said. “It’s important to be able to speak for them when they can’t speak for themselves anymore.”

Cigarette smoking causes about 480,000 deaths annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Smoking cuts life expectancy by an average of 10 years.

So far, more than 170 communities in Massachusetts have increased the age for tobacco sales to 21. But mandating that increase statewide will help keep smoking out of high schools, said Marc Hymovitz, state director of government relations for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

“We feel kids in every town in Massachusetts deserve to be protected from Big Tobacco,” he said. “If we can stop them before 21, the likelihood of them starting to smoke drops dramatically.”

Having people share their stories with lawmakers will put faces behind the legislation, said Hymovitz.

“These are the people who can vote for or against these legislators,” Hymovitz said. “We’re hoping that having them meet with legislators will put the bill over the top.”