Tobacco.org

• Woman's tabacco judgment upheld 

Diagnosed in 1997 with lung cancer and given just four months to live, Patricia Henley decided to spend her last days fighting the Philip Morris tobacco company so that others would know the truth about the dangers of smoking.

Now, seven years after filing suit -- and with her cancer in remission -- the former singer can boast that she is one of the few people to go up against Big Tobacco -- and win. . . .

"People have asked me, Why did you think you had the right to sue this company?" she said in an interview. "I had no other choice.

"This was the only course I had to prove what I knew, what they were doing to injure people, to get children addicted to this product so they have another customer for 10, 15, 20 years," said Henley, who is 58 and smoked Marlboros for 35 years.

"Believe me, fighting for this doesn't make you a hero. It makes you a human being."

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This was the only course I had to prove what I knew, what they were doing to injure people, to get children addicted to this product so they have another customer for 10, 15, 20 years. Believe me, fighting for this doesn't make you a hero. It makes you a human being."
Patricia Henley

They can downplay it all they want, but the reality is they took this case as far as they could go and they lost. I think that this will encourage other people that they can pursue a case, that the tobacco companies are not invulnerable. And I think it will take less and less time over the years, because a lot of law has been written because of this case, and there's a road map for other cases.
Henley attorney, Madelyn Chaber.