Imagine not being able to talk, eat or even take a normal shower. Those are realities of life for a man who survived throat cancer and shared his story with Davenport Central students Tuesday.
Richard Hawkins says he stared smoking in high school, puffing on one and a half packs a day for the next 40 years. Hawkins habit led him down a dark and scary path. It's a road he says he never wants to see kids, like those at Davenport Central, go down.
"I was big and tough and no one was going to tell me smoking was bad," he said.
Hawkins says it took being diagnosed with stage four throat cancer in 2001 to make him wake up and realize just how deadly tobacco can be.
"Stage four anything is a death sentence. Don't wait until somebody tells you are going to die before you change your attitude," he told kids.
Hawkins says everything, his family and his life, flashed before his eyes.
"I grabbed my wife and we stood there crying like two year-olds."
However, at that moment Hawkins also made a deal, that if his life could spared he would dedicate it to sharing his story with kids.
"I don't want them to ever have to end up like me and what I have been through and am still going through."
Tuesday Hawkins, who speaks with a voice box, took kids through his 15 hour surgery. He showed showing them pictures of the camera that was put down is throat and what is throat actually looked like. He then went into detail about life now and how the cancer, while gone, still haunts him.
"It's really affected me in a lot of ways, being able to talk, eat, I have a buzzing in my ears, you take those things for granted."
Students say after hearing Hawkins speak, they have a greater appreciation for those things and even an greater desire to never pick up a cigarette.
"I never want to smoke, it was really sad that he can't talk and I don't want to be like that when I get older," student Josie O'Boyle said.
They are words Hawkins says he can't get enough of.
"I love it, yeah."
