Idea-RTW Anti-Tobacco Tour
 

I am planning a RTW trip starting from my home town of San Francisco, heading East, this summer on my 1200 GSA.

Last year I had 10% of my lung removed, (cancer scare) have moderate emphesema as well as pulmonary fibrosis. (Father and GF both passed with same lung problems) I'm still strong for my 54 years, for now anyway, despite my conditions. I've been smoke free nearly 3 years now.

My IDEA? You already get it. Ride for some, yet to be determined, Charity- non-profit that wants to have an effect on people related to the harms of tobacco, encouraging them to stop and/or helping them to stop. This could be locally but preferred globally.

Planning such a RTW trip is a seemingly overwhelming task as it is. Including this "making a difference" part of it even adds more. But I want to do it.

What suggestions might those of you with experience, have to help me make this happen in a streamline manner, yet be seriously effective.

Website -Fund gathering site that works best? How to do that.
How to include the media?
How to get support-have a team to support me in doing this...?
What works?

Thanks Kent aka Hi Ho Silver!!

I would never do an "Anti" tour but always "Pro".
People you meet will be more understanding if you try to raise money for a charity that is doing cancer research education then when you doing the same thing for an "anti-smoke" charity.
You basicly doing the same thing but you have a better chance to make friends and on a RTW tour it may be better to make friends then enemies.

Just my two cents.

Put me down for a "Pro" smoking tour :cool4:

As a smoker maybe I shouldn't reply to this thread.

But, good luck with a non smoking tour of Africa, the Middle East, Russia, South America, or most of SE Asia.

Well done on beating your illness and your addiction, it is great to hear positive stories like yours, but the attitudes towards this problem outside of 'The West,' are very different in my experience.

By all means keep travelling, take life, live it, love it, have a great time, take what's been given to you, but don't expect too much support or returns from the anti smoking angle - do it for yourself and enjoy yourself.

Birdy

Thanks for the feedback
 

Yes that is what I needed to hear. Part of the delimma in how to approach this. I've been thinking about the COPD Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Foundation. Or something like that. This is more generalized and includes things like TB as well as all the others I've mentioned. Not as specific as tobacco only.

Gosh I loved smoking...
Do not wish to make anyone uncomfortable. Wish I still could. Guess I could but i don't...

IT is just the cause of 443,000 unnecessary and preventable deaths in the US and Millions around the world yearly. IT will likely be the cause of mine.

I really don't want to rant. This is personal and important. The question here really, is how to "make a difference" ... and how to KISS (keep it simple stupid)

2nd thoughts Taking a stand
 

I've thought about my earlier reply and reconsidering. There will be some resistance, primarily from smokers it seems. I was always uncomfortable when anyone was suggesting I should quit. To be honest, I always knew I should and was hurting myself and possibly others.

I will stand firm and continue with finding a way to carry the message that smoking is hurtful to ourselves and others. It will kill us and maybe even others.

Nicotine is VERY powerful and HIGHLY addictive.

Making friends or not is really not my main concern here.

This message can be carried and supported without personally offending anyone. That is not my interest.

Does anyone else think there would be support for such an endeavor?

How to narrow this down remains a challenge.

:mchappy::mchappy:

Remember back when you were a smoker? What was your response when even people you were close to told you all about how addictive and powerful nicotine is? Did it help? How did you feel when people with whom you had no connection at all (e.g., a stranger who just rode into town on a motorbike) told you what damage you were doing to yourself, and how you really ought to quit?

I don't have an answer for the question you're asking, but I do know a lot of stuff that doesn't really work, and most of the people who might quit on the basis of someone informing them of objective health issues have already long-since quit. I smoked very heavily for almost 30 years, and what allowed me to quit was learning alternate ways to modulate emotions with which I'd been very uncomfortable. Feel anxious? Smoke a cigarette. Scared? Light one up. Pissed off? Got a match?

If you want to make a difference, work on that aspect of substance abuse; it is underlying in all sorts of substance and behavioral addictions. People who know how to fully inhabit their own emotional selves find it a lot easier to quit smoking cigarettes. The physiological addiction to nicotine (or other substances in tobacco smoke) is secondary.

How's that for thread drift?

Mark

Good one mate! :clap:

I for one support an anti smoking stance. So what if you make some people uncomfortable.

IMHO, a big part of stopping the damage smoking does is stopping kids smoking. If you don't start in your teens then you'll be unlikely to take it up when you are older, when you don't care if people think you are cool. Back in the eighties it was tres cool to be seen with a tab dangling from the lip and it took me ten years to kick the habit. What a waste of my money and my health. Fortunately I gave up before it did any real damage (I assume!).

A round the world motorcycle trip is a pretty cool thing to do by most standards. I'd look into the possibility of doing slide shows and talks about the trip in local schools after you get back. You could combine an exciting presentation with a gentle message that cigarettes nearly stopped you doing things like this. You'll need to think about this carefully before leaving though, to ensure you get the kind of pictures you need to effectively present. Maybe even video clips? If you are not already a good photographer, going on a course should equip you to take decent enough shots. A chat about pics you have taken previously with a friendly local photgraphy college or picture editor of a newspaper may be a good way to get tips on where your pictures may need improving.

This is just a suggestion from my limited experience of presenting to kids. I had a book published last year, a children's adventure, and when I present to kids I talk about the motorbike trip to the Moroccan Sahara that inspired the book. I have some nice photos and the kids are fascinated by the bike and the trip. I would expect schools to be keen to have you around.

Good luck with whatever you do.

Matt :)

My dad smoked until i was born(43 years back).
He did a very efficient educational job by warn us in our child hood to avoid that society decease!
As said before organize a multimedia program to offer on schools to show the damage that this shit does to bodies!Maybe making an online program of what you can offer.Pictures,videos etc.Lots of infos out there.
Its a good cause!Go for it if you can help others and ride the road!

As mentioned in a previous post you will need to choose your route to maximise your message, with regard to the attitudes of local populations , you need to consider that in some areas life expectancy is such that smoking related diseases which are mostly late onset is unlikely to figure in their risk assessments as they will consider they are unlikely to reach that point anyway . Populations are strange in their view to poisons we ingest , take the developed world and their view of alchohol ! beerbier
Conversely the fact that you smoked and are able to survive it and go on a RTW trip on a motorcycle could give another message , it might achieve more by raising money in your own society in supporting the smoking harm message
and then rewarding your hard work by going RTW and just enjoying it for what it is without taking your attention away by trying to fit in a campaign JMHO :thumbup1:

Pretty much what I was thinking as I read the earlier 9 posts.
On the news here today we now know, from research carried out in the USA, that it is not healthy to eat red meat more than a couple of times per week; this is particularly the case for processed meat products.

But life goes on regardless, especially in those countries where the average life expectancy is around 42 years of age; "if the smoking doesn't get me, the red meat, or wine, will".
Life expectancy is a whole different thing outside the area of influence of the western media.

This guy did a pretty good job

Allen Carr - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think the quote from one of your postings says it all - it is personal to you.

By all means have a go but I think you will have a hard time of it especially when a lot of folks you meet have very little in their livesand smoking is one of their pleasures. They will not want you ramming an anti smoking education down their throats.

For the record I am an ex smoker.

Why is it always 'smoker and 'non smoker'. Sometimes I smoke, sometimes I don't. Similar to drinking alcohol; sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Personally I don't find nicotine addictive any more than I do alcohol.

Havn't touched a cigarette for over a month, sometimes I have gone three months at a time. The way I see it is like any other past time. I can therefore understand how 'smokers' find the whole 'anti smoking' thing a tad annoying.

But as for the original idea, if you have a passion for carrying out a world wide morale campaing then who are we to stop you. Good luck :thumbup1:

Thank you all for the feedback
 

It is now about 3 weeks since I posted that original message. Man this is a big trip to plan. The website is in development now. So much to do. Can't wait to just leave San Francisco and just ride.

What I know is, despite my first ideas, I do not want to personally try to make anybody anywhere in the world stop smoking. No one could stop me. I loved smoking although I knew it was hurting me and I would pay later. I do have addictive tendencies. I understand...

The organizations trying to effect tobacco use on a global level are large and well funded. They are not in need of the small amount of financial support I could generate. So I am currently looking at a local charity organization to work with.

Tacr2man said it all with his wisdom. Enjoy my trip since I do have the health and ability to make this dream trip.

However, I do still wish to raise conciousness about the harms of tobacco.
If you smoke consider making another effort to stop.
If you have not started stay that way. Keep the kids from starting.
Tobacco companies are making the money on people and their nicotine addiction.
6 million people die each year in the world from tobacco use. These are preventable deaths.
I do not wish anyone to experience the removal of part of their lung like I did last year. That was a horrible experience. I do have emphesyma and other things in there as a result of smoking.

SO thank you all again. My website will be up soon. It will list resources for those who want to stop smoking and more not so fun facts. Understand this is just something I have to do.

While I am at it. Depart Mid June. Ride 1200 GSA, Route likely to be: San Francisco through US-Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Czech, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia to Vlad. So Korea-Bangkok or other SE Asia city. Then who knows.
OH WHAT FUN!