'A big heart ... a fearless fighter ... one of the bravest people I've ever met'
Jump to full article: Edmonton (Alberta) Journal (ca), 2003-05-20
Author: David Staples / The Edmonton Journal
Intro: Before she died, Barb Tarbox made plans for her anti-smoking crusade to continue.
Doctors suggested she could donate her body to science, for teaching and research purposes. Barb loved the idea.
"I'm doing it," she told her best friend Tracy Mueller in late January.
"Whoever wants my body, learn as much as you can, teach as much as you can. By God, they're bound to find something in this body, that's what I think." . .
"On January 24th, I had my last cigarette after 25 years of smoking," wrote Catherine Bellemare of Winnipeg, Man. "I simply could not get you out of my mind. I have two children and the thought that I might have just spent my last Christmas with them was too much. I just simply want to thank you for maybe saving my life and I wish I could return the favour."
And Julia Nihon, a student at Lower Canada College in Montreal, wrote, "I used to be a social smoker; however, after your speech, I am having second thoughts. In fact, I can't even look at a cigarette without feeling repulsed." . .
"We have 535 students and 40 staff and the only noise you could hear was tears hitting the floor," Fort Saskatchewan principal Eleanore Commodore said of Barb's presentation.
"I can tell the kids about all the reasons not to smoke and about all the statistics, but here is a woman who is living it," said Dave O'Dell, a Victoria, B.C. high school principal. "She is saying to the students, 'I am the reason. I am the statistic. I am living proof that smoking kills.' " . . .
The Barb Tarbox Legacy Fund, run by the Edmonton Community Foundation, will collect money to help young children. A scholarship and award has been set up by AADAC in Barb's name to fund anti-smoking groups.
"A big heart," said Tracy.
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