Sunday 30 December 2012

Bryan's cancer story

*Update July 2015: The new legacy tobacco document library has gone online. Here you can search over 14 million documents from the secret vaults of big tobacco.

My daughter was telling me about another of the cigarette packets that they're selling now here. It has a picture of a guy on it who died very soon after being diagnosed with lung cancer. I found it online and here it is:


She came out with a story told to her by someone that he'd actually died of AIDS and not cancer, and that the family were considering suing the Australian gov for using the pictures without permission. If that were true it would have been about as shocking as the picture itself. Turns out it's completely false.

I guess it's understandable that people would question the validity of the picture. I mean seriously, ten weeks to go from the bloke in the corner inset pic, to the emaciated person near death? But yes it's actually true.
Bryan was an American mechanic and tradesman, a victim of lung cancer after smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

When he was dying in 1999, Bryan asked his family to get his story out there as a warning to others.

So these pictures were taken just hours before he died and published in a Florida newspaper.
And now 13-years-later they’ve made it all the way here to our cigarettes packets.more
He died in 1999 in Florida. Must have been very advanced, the cancer, to go that quick. This is a short video about it, I snipped a pic from the video below it. 

 


Update:

An interesting discussion below. I would suggest before anyone comes on here in Australia crapping on about Bryan carking it from AIDS to take a big dose of reality. He did not die of an AIDS related illness, he died of smoking related lung cancer. There was no underlying illness. Despite what people may believe. 

There's plenty of evidence around for anyone with half a brain and the internet. The burden of proof is on the person who claims it wasn't cancer. Perhaps those who still think he did, put their claims to the Dept of Health. Or the reporter that actually took up the story in a Florida newspaper, Sue Landry?
The story of exactly how Bryan Curtis came to appear on our plain packs is unclear. The Department of Health will only say that Mr Curtis was a US citizen who died of smoking-related lung cancer. It entered into a confidential agreement with his family to use the images.

Fairfax Media believes it was Mr Curtis' dying wish to prevent even one child sharing the same fate. An article published in the St Petersburg Times in Florida in June 1999, just weeks after he died, tells the story of the St Petersburg mechanic, roofer and construction worker, who smoked two packs of Marlboro Reds a day for nearly 20 years, until he died, aged 34.

In the weeks before his death, the father of two urged his mother to help him spread the anti-smoking message. She subsequently rang newspapers, radio and television stations seeking someone who would tell her son's story.

That person was Sue Landry of the St Petersburg Times. Since then, her article and the accompanying images have been shared across the internet. His shocking image is also believed to have been published in Time magazine and pinned on fridges, in schools and in factories around the world. The Age
Where is there any mention of AIDS? Or the part of the story that the gov here used the pics without permission and the family was going to sue? There's not one iota of evidence to support any of that.

What interested me the most about this whole thing was the connection made with AIDS. Being someone who's HIV+, having that lie chucked in your face is an insult. With all the disinformation, ignorance, and stigma associated with having HIV, and having to deal with that as part of life now, the last thing HIV+ people need is crap like this muddying the waters.

Update 2:

Here is Sue Landry's original article in the St Petersburg Times in Florida USA, 1999
He knew, only a few days after he went to the hospital on April 2 with severe abdominal pain, how wrong he had been. He had oat cell lung cancer that had spread to his liver. He probably had not had it long. Also called small cell lung cancer, it's an aggressive killer that usually claims the lives of its victims within a few months. more   
*Note: related post about this here.

44 comments:

  1. I am an rn, and a smoker, when I 1st noticed the pictures, I said 2 a friend of mine, that's aids related illness. Believe me I have witnessed many. The man looks like a 70's porn star. Forgive me if I have insulted any1, I am posting this without prejudice. I myself am gay, but please don't blame the whole thing on smoking, there is only 1 cancer that is know completely 2 cause cancer,,,yes, that was bryan's, but.......not like this, and this is going from 30yrs nursing experience. God bless bryan,,,u should have told those u loved

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  2. Are you serious? I have seen people die of cancer also & this is exactly what they looked. Bless your 13 years of nursing experience. And I've also seen people with full blown AIDS.

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  3. to the gay smoking rn....what do your comments really mean?? i assume you're admitting the fact that you will see yourself sooner or later in YOUR death bed like bryan and people can judge you ( without prejudice?) that you look like a 80s drag queen and say you have aids related illness...but please dont blame the 2 packs of smokes a day for my cancer ...only specialised doctors will make judgement on those people who are battling, dieing from these illnesses and not judged or diaognosed by looking at a picture on the internet or cigarette box...remember, nicotine addiction is known to have a high death rate....give it up...go and seek help to fight this addictive habit. Well i'm not sure about the 70s gay porn thing...but have fun and remember to use protection to avoid the HIV ...sounds like a healthier option to choose than smoking....so if you are a gay smoking rn..have a go and cut out the smoking...be a healthy gay rn....without prejudice.

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  4. Perhaps it's the denial that causes smokers to think that there's no way this could be caused by smoking? Yes it is shocking the picture, I thought they may have done aggressive chemotherapy to stop it, which can be very damaging. I do think though that when the gov decided to use this picture in their adds it would have been after much research into the actual case to make sure the facts were true. I mean these packets are across the country now aren't they?

    Which brings me to the question, where did the lie come from that Bryan died of AIDS rather than cigarettes? Smokers? It's a prevalent lie too, David has heard it as well as my daughter.

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  5. I find it odd that this "conspiracy cover up" has taken 13 years to suddenly uncover.
    I've searched and searched, but I can't find that there was ever any mention of AIDS in 13 years until the Australian people took one look at an old picture and figured it all out.

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    1. "Australian people" ? That's a bit mean. The photo on the pack was what caused the confusion/misinformation to begin with... it began via the internet. Can you say that it was the "Australian people" that began it all? In all likelihood 'Big Tobacco' has more responsibility for this than the "Australians" who are trying to do the right thing. Sheesh.

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    2. Interesting..... Never thought of that.

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  6. I myself as a smoker of 15 years am dying of lung cancer. I was diagnosed 12 months ago and don't expect to see my next birthday. I am still 90kg and have only lost 12kg due to the chemotherapy, I personally believe he died from AIDS.

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    1. Where's the proof? There's none. Zero. Zilch. Believing it was AIDS doesn't make it true (any more than believing in an invisible man in the sky makes it true).

      Sympathies for your illness.

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    2. What, he/she needs proof that it was AIDS? Wheres the proof that it was cancer, aside from some pictures and a short story on a cigarette packet? Its not like this would be the first time the government has lied to us, made up stories, etc. in order from us to comply out of fear to their regulations. There is nothing backing up the story that it was from a smoking related illness whatsoever. Thats why they chose a picture from 1999, because the facts would be harder to dig up than a picture from 2009. Without proof, it could easily be something else besides a smoking related illness. I personally believe that he did have lung cancer, or something similar - but I also believe there was an underlying illness which contributed to his death. Prove me wrong, prove you're right. Go on, do it. Or do you not have proof either?

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    3. Did you even read the linked article? Did you even watch the video? The burden of proof is on all those who came up with a lie that he died of AIDS. Further comments as an update to my post above.

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  7. I am a smoker of three years and was a smoker of marijuana for 7 years. This is a cancer related death and he obviously tried chemotherapy, I've watched my Uncle die who had prostate cancer and he looked like this. I know the risks of smoking and I still choose to smoke knowing that one day this could be me. Smoking is a choice. We all know it harms out body and can potentionally kill us. Don't make up lies so that smoking seems safer. It's stupid and immature I smoke for the same reason 90% of adults smoke. Stress... And I know one day I'll quit. Not yet, but in the future. Do not go around making up stories to make smoking seem safer when it will in fact do more damage.

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  8. Why do people feel the need to make up such lies? Really! There are too many drama queens in this world that just make up bullshit before actually thinking for 2 seconds. I think the first person that commented on here maybe needs to stop gloating about how "smart" she/he is. Because she/he now looks really silly. I don't think the Australian Government would pay someone $100,000+ a year to find pictures like this, and naïvely put them on cigarette packs without checking what he actually died from. I work in a service station and have to listen to these naïve people say the same crap every time they look at the picture. And it really annoys me. Some people need to get a life.

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  9. Yeah, governments NEVER lie to their citizens.

    I am not a doctor or medical expert, but I don't see too many people who smoke getting around looking like Skeletor. If you ask me about this guys death? Probably a combination of the Cancer, the AIDS, and the Kemo + god knows whatever else he was doing, probably methamphetamine as well among other things. I think they have just picked the worst picture they possibly could find instead of an average person who dies of lung cancer. I'm sure a lot of people would look better than Bryan on their deathbed.

    Shit, I hope I do.

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    1. Robert,

      Did you read the original article by Sue Landry? There's a paragraph of it and a link under Update 2. Again, there is zero mention of AIDS. Other than that, it looks like your mind is made up and no amount of facts are going to change it. Feel free to read the related post too, as to my reactions at such behaviour. As someone with HIV I find the AIDS lie about Bryan quite insulting.

      I mean seriously man, you don't have any expertise in the medical world, but you continue with the fantasy that Bryan had AIDS. Not only that, but you've introduced another thing as well saying he was using meth "among other things". All of this is from your own mind and a denial of the facts before you.

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  10. Who care what he died from it looks horrible and painful. have respect for the dead mans wishes.

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  11. maybe he was suffering aneorexia ( i shouldnt joke about it) but reading all the stuff on here makes me laugh as to how manny people are obviously in denial i smoke and except that it could kill me but reading all the crap on here is just people that smoke and cant accept this may happen to them

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  12. Great inspirational work. Keep it up.
    Great information and well written.

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  13. each individual like anything experiences illness in different ways, has anyone thought that he may have had an aggressive form of cancer and could not be treated? Or by the before picture he was already a slender man? At 90kgs and only losing 12 kgs doesn't mean that you wont end up being an emaciated mess! I've had friend parents be diagnosed with melanoma and told it was treatable only to have died 8 weeks later at the age of 40 when i was 15 they too looked like a picture of health and by the end they unrecognisable Cancer is a cruel disease and robs families of parents,sibli,gs aunties and uncles grandparents ect. each and every day of the year. For those who think Australians started the AIDS thing maybe it the tobacco companies trying to deflect the the cause of death wake and realise that cancer kills and is not discriminative.

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  14. I am a palliative care nurse of 20 years and let me tell you all who think that the story of Bryan can’t be true,it can be true! Cancer is a parasite,it eats away at the body until nothing is left.Yes some cancers are more aggressive than others,some people lives for years(slow growing or treatable cancers) and others for weeks or months(more aggressive cancers) but the results are the same. A dead body from a parasitic disease such as cancer does look like this! I am shocked to think that a nurse with 30 years experience has not seen this!(Jan 31st post)
    I applaud the person who started this blog and sourced the facts as I too have heard the rumours and this is what had led me to this site. After reading all the researched information I have no doubt that this is fact. Regardless “Smoking Kills”-evidence based research has proven this,maybe the people who do not believe this should research this information for themselves.

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    1. Thanks for that. You may be also interested in the "related post" linked at the end of the blog post above.

      I heard someone at another table the other day, in a conversation about Bryan, saying "He died of AIDS", which went unchallenged at the table. I was tempted to disagree but couldn't be bothered. Have come across enough determined ignorance just from this online blog post :s

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  15. i don't believe in god but god bless his wife and kids

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  16. G'day Thomas,

    From Denmark. It must be a bit strange to see this curfuffle here in Oz about a cigarette packet. Let us know if there's been similar stories about Bryan over there? I'd really like to know now who started this whole lie. Somebody had to.

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  17. I'm not trying to throw a spanner in the works, but smoking doesn't just "kill." Every person is vastly different from the next. Many people have lived to be well over 100, having smoked most of their life. The oldest man in history (according to Guinness), took up smoking at 70 and died before his 121st birthday. You have no idea how it will affect you, or even if it will affect you. Genes have a huge role to play in your chance of survival. I can admit that there is potential for smoking to cause harm, but am not convinced that it WILL cause harm. Cancer sufferers, sometimes do and sometimes don't look like Bryan did. But, I do believe he had lung cancer. With or without the facts, purely on face value. I am a smoker of 10 years with a clean bill of health. I have a father who smoked for 34 years (apart from being overweight and getting older), he has a clean bill of health, aged 61. My mother is still a smoker aged 53 with a clean bill of health. My sister is a smoker aged 37 with a clean bill of health. It can happen to anyone but it will not happen to everyone. This is not denial, this is just stating the blatant, obvious truth. Smoking causes all sorts of issues. The real question is; whom will it affect?

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    1. Hi Thomas, thanks for that. So we can cross Denmark off the list then :)

      I don't smoke myself, never have. Tried when 13yrs old and spewed like fuck, never had the desire to start after that. Dad smoked all his life but after he had a stroke in his 60's they told him to stop or die. He stopped and ended up living to nearly 80. I wouldn't think he'd have lasted that long had he smoked. Yet I know of someone more recently who was diagnosed with lung cancer and was dead within months. So I agree your lifestyle and immune system, along with genetics, play a role in how long someone may live or die for when smoking.

      However...... I disagree that that might mean that it's OK for everyone to smoke.

      You could use that same logic on HIV then. Some people live for 20 years or more without medication, and I think there's even rare cases where the HIV doesn't ever attack the immune system of an individual. Doctors don't know why. But that doesn't mean we should all go out and have unsafe sex does it. Some people get sick very quickly from it and need a hospital stay and medication started.

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  19. Who cares Sue Landry we all know that smoking is no good for us & we also know it causes cancer in some people, but neither is being a poofter good for you & why did you take it upon yourself to be such a busy body trying to make everyone belive in your beliefs? if that guy Bryan wants the world to see him on cigarette packets then he must have known that he would get the piss taken out of him because thats what people do weather you like it or not,

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    1. Nobody's making you read the blog. If you don't like it then fuck off. Simple.

      Just a note BTW, read the linked "Related Post" at the end of the above post. Nobody was more surprised than me when this thing about Bryan took off here. It's called "Determined Ignorance", something which you mate would know quite a bit about.

      So, it's not lying then to say he died of AIDS? It's just "taking the piss" then is it? And how by chance did you come to this new definition in the English language? Judging by your spelling and punctuation, I'd not be assuming you actually know much about the English language at all.

      Being a "poofter" is not "good for you"? I take it that's a reference to me being HIV+. How lovely. So because of a smoke packet you attack me personally. Well sunshine, if being good for you involves being an authentic person living an authentic life, then I'm doing marvellously thank you.

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  20. I deleted my comments again, because when I examined it a little closer and there is certainly something's not right.
    So I jump away from the story of Bryan.

    Thomas (Denmark)

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  21. I agree, Peter. Just because it may not affect all of us, doesn't mean that all of us should play with fire. I read somewhere that vaccines for humans only have to be effective on something like 33% of the population before they are made publicly available. Which is not too dissimilar to smoking in the sense that not even half of smokers will be seriously affected by smoking, no matter how long they smoke. All this propaganda about smoking causing everything under the sun has actually led doctors to falsely diagnose people; I go in there with
    The flu and they ask if I smoke. I say yes. They say that's your problem. They almost never diagnose smokers properly because, it's not possible to be healthy, fit, or anything as a smoker. You're just the walking dead. Which I guess is not too dissimilar to HIV? Or do they actually take your visits seriously?

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    1. Well this is why I'm so annoyed with the whole AIDS lie with Bryan. If you're the walking dead being a smoker, then WTF am, I according to people who think Bryan looked so bad it MUST have been AIDS. It perpetuates what is today a false stereotype of those with HIV, and therefore the stigma as well. The truth is that life still goes on after a HIV+ diagnosis, for many years. Yet the Bryan AIDS lie infers I'm gonna drop dead shortly.

      With the HIV doctor visits, it's about keeping track of the HIV blood levels and dealing with other issues that can affect people with HIV more. Like the flu or whatever, that would really knock me around. People involved in HIV care in Sydney are amazingly helpful.

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  22. An oxygen machine, but no oxygen delivery to Bryan and a pack of cigarettes and an ashtray on the table.
    Extremely unusual in people who are dying due to lung cancer.

    I'm sorry, but I think it works very very strange.

    Picture = http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=33ypcap&s=5

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    1. Another picture = http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2yl6154&s=5

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    2. I'm not concerned about anything in the picture of Bryan on his death bed. It proves exactly nothing that he's smoking (smoking laws are much more lax in the US) other than that he couldn't give up, or that his wife was smoking. So what if he's not plugged into an oxygen machine? Would you like your picture taken with that hose thing over your face? Again, it proves nothing.

      The other picture of apparently Bryan surviving the whole ordeal, someone is having a lend of you. There's no link or any proof other than what someone labelled on that picture. I do know however that his son (Bryan Curtis also) and wife are in jail now. From The Age article above:

      "Attempts by Fairfax Media to contact Mr Curtis' family were unsuccessful. His wife, Bobbie Jo Curtis, and son, Bryan Jnr, who was just two when his father died, were charged with attempted murder in September, of a man who Ms Curtis is believed to have met on an online dating site."

      Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/dead-man-bryan-tells-his-lifes-tale-to-all-smokers-20121218-2bl7w.html#ixzz2TPOurLfM

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    3. There may appear some really ugly pictures of a man who is dying, but a transparent hose which is loose on the nose is FOR hatch to show?
      A little bit silly to say I think.
      If you just knew a little bit about smoking, open flames and oxygen / oxygen machines, you had not written that way.
      You know what? I do not even think that Bryan is dead! I think the whole gang (Bryan, wife, etc) are in prison for making this completely insane story.
      An image of an unknown person there probably already dead, a lady and a child next door and it was: the false story about Bryan and they are all in prison now for that.
      With your answers to my two writings with links to pictures, do you simply the more obvious it all is sheer lie.
      The wife had to smoke in the same room as a dying person??? Hmm
      A thin tube in the nose is a violent image??? Hmm
      Jesus christ, what people do not find on to earn a little extra money.
      It sounds almost too good to some may believe that Bryan is dead and the rest of the family are in prison because of something completely different.
      I would hope I have absolutely right and everyone sits in jail for this.
       
      I will from now on make every effort to get the right truth forward and then I post it simply everywhere on the web.
      I hate people who lie about death.

      It's okay to scare people, but not with death involved when it's all a big lie and certainly not if it is to make money from it all.

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  26. Fuck man, can this shit get any more bloody out there? Now I'm getting spammed by some weirded out "Powerful African spell caster" who espouses the herbal thing over there and reckons it cures HIV.

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  28. Is this evidence enough to disprove this big lie about Bryan Curtis?

    http://www.bustedmugshots.com/florida/rockledge/bryan-curtis-roberts/55154611

    How can he sit in jail as a 38 year old when he lie story died as a 33-34 year old?

    --------------
    This is the very very ugly snake (your stupid excuse) which has been seated when you get oxygen because of lung cancer

    http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=amqgi0&s=5

    If I were you I would look to close this page that tells lies about death.

    It's just going to puke that some will post such fibs just to be seen.

    Otherwise YOU provide better evidence than that shown here, because it can all make.

    -----------------------------------

    And this was as my absolute last writing and watching here at this ridiculous side.

    Shame on you

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  29. https://www.facebook.com/bryan.curtis.1000/about

    A little funny

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  30. OK this just got weirder. Not only did the witch doctor spam again, but now there's a completely new theory being proposed; that Bryan is actually alive and has been thrown in jail for being deceitful. WTF? :s

    So what's more believable then? That Bryan died of cancer and wanted people to know about it, or that he's still alive in jail? come on darlings, get a grip!

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  31. OK that's enough everyone. I'm shutting down comments on this post in the interests of my own sanity, and possibly in the interests of others as well. I've had enough of witch doctors and conspiracy theories.

    Again, I have no idea why people are so fuckin adamant and determined to come up with some foundation-less proof that Bryan didn't die of cancer. WTF is the problem in just admitting he did?

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