Duo stresses tobacco dangers

Ronnie Trentham wishes someone had told him about the dangers of chewing tobacco before it was too late. Trentham repeated that statement many times to students in Sanders County last week as he and Greg Bilby took their “Tobacco Tour” to Plains, Thompson Falls and Trout Creek.

Trentham is a seven-time cancer survivor. “I was one of the happiest people you’re ever meet, but I had struggles with tobacco,” Trentham said. He detailed how his first cancer was found in his mouth, and the second in his jawbone. During that second battle, doctors told Trentham they could make him comfortable and send him home to live out his expected short life, or they could saw out a piece of his jaw and graft bone from his leg. He chose to fight, and has been undergoing surgeries and cancer treatments since.

“I want you to understand,” Trentham told Thompson Falls High School students, “I’m a seven-time cancer survivor – and it could have all been prevented. I wish I had known the dangers of chewing tobacco and had had somebody tell me like I’m telling you here today.”

Trentham said his family – his wife of 34 years and his two daughters – has been his inspiration for continuing to fight. He has had to have all of his teeth removed because the cancer treatments made his teeth rot. “I don’t think anybody should have to go through that,” he said. He showed the students pictures of his surgeries and of the radiation burns on his neck and face that resulted from the cancer treatments. He told of how the inside of his mouth blistered and burned the same way.

Bilby talked to students about making good choices, grabbing students and teachers out of the audience to tell a story from his Cherokee heritage to validate his point.

Both men, from Oklahoma, were visiting about a dozen schools in Northwest Montana as part of their tour.