Speaker shows dark side of tobacco
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By Jeff Eatmon
The bleachers of Laramie County Community College’s basketball gym were flooded with about 400 elementary school children on Feb. 13 as a man without a lower jaw told his story.
Gruen Von Behrens, a spokesman for the Oral Health America’s National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP), warned youngsters about the dangers of tobacco use leading up to national “Through with Chew” week, Feb. 15–21.
Von Behrens’ speech was presented by Laramie County Tobacco Prevention.
As a 17-year-old high school athletic standout, Von Behrens said life was easy in his rural hometown of Stewardson, Ill. He received a baseball scholarship, and he was popular—but he had a secret. He was afraid to tell his mom about the white spots that had appeared along his tongue where he held his chewing tobacco.
He told her he was slurring his speech and drooling because his wisdom teeth were coming in, but when she took him to the dentist to have his wisdom teeth pulled, he had to tell her and the doctor he knew he had cancer.
He was diagnosed with oral cancer and soon had the first of 34 surgeries to remove the tumor.
“Spit tobacco did this to me, no question,” Von Behrens said, pointing to his ravaged face. “I know I’m a little hard to understand, but if you’ll bear with me and listen closely, I think you’ll hear my message loud and clear.”
His message was a powerful one. Like the more than 2 million Von Behrens has reached in the U.S. and Canada during his many years as a speaker, the audience was moved as he remembered looking in the mirror for the first time at his tongue and face that had been taken in the surgery and talking to God. “Why is this happening to me?” he recalled. “I haven’t been a bad kid.”
He seemed to have reached a class of fifth-graders from Rossman Elementary, who, when asked what they had learned, all shouted in unison, “Don’t chew tobacco!” An 11-year-old, Michael Shallert, added, “And if we never start chewing, we won’t have to get all those surgeries.”
Those surgeries include removing half the muscle in Von Behrens’ face and neck, replacing skin tissue in those areas with skin from his leg, replacing bones in his jaw with bones from his leg and shoulder and removing all his teeth that had deteriorated because of countless chemotherapy treatments.
The type of cancer he had usually carries a 75 percent mortality rate, so he considered himself lucky to be alive. Because of the proximity to the brain and spine, oral cancer is even more deadly than many people realize, Von Behrens said.
Von Behrens’ speech targets 10- to 17-year-olds because studies of tobacco users, like the one done by the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center, show the median age for first-time use is 14; Von Behrens was 13.
He remembered that fateful camping trip with friends. “The trick is to never start in the first place,” he said. “By the time I was diagnosed with cancer, I was so addicted I didn’t stop chewing until I was literally on my way to the hospital for the first surgery.” Von Behrens said prevention and education are critical first steps.
Lisa Scholtz, the coordinator for the Laramie County Meth Initiative, brought her 10-year-old son to hear Von Behrens’ message. She said in her professional capacity, she works with outside agencies to educate the public on the dangers of all drugs, not just meth. “The problem we’re seeing is that we’re becoming a more and more smokeless society,” she said.” Many are turning to smokeless tobacco, thinking it’s a safe alternative, and it’s not.”
The facts, according to Wyoming Through with Chew, support her assertion because one can of chew contains three to four times as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, making it more addictive and, therefore, more deadly.
Ultimately, Von Behrens left the audience uplifted, saying his ordeal taught him a lot about what is truly important in life. “No matter how bad a hand God has dealt you, there’s always someone who has it worse,” he said. He drew a comparison of a close friend who’s confined to a wheelchair because of a car accident. “He’d give anything to be able to do this just once,” said Von Behrens, standing from his chair and taking a few steps.
As a married father of one, with a second child on the way, he said doing everyday tasks like shopping has taught him to treat all people with respect. Being aware that he’s constantly stared at gives him a unique perspective that he passed onto the kids. “If you’re a good person, and stay true to yourself, people will like you for what you are on the inside...not how you look on the outside.”