Rodriguez uses personal tragedy to fight tobacco

March 26--COLUMBUS -- After her mother died of lung cancer, Jamie Rodriguez wasn't going to let tobacco tear apart another family.

She can still recall her mother's last day. Rodriguez was 20 years old at the time.

"I understood it, but I never fully grasped it," Rodriguez said.

In 2004, on the weekend of Mother's Day, Kathy Black, a single mother of four, was diagnosed with stage-three terminal lung cancer at the age of 52.

The disease had grown rapidly. A checkup just six months prior to her diagnosis showed nothing.

"She smoked for as long as I can remember and I saw firsthand what tobacco does, not only to an individual, but also to the family," Rodriguez said.

A little more than a year after her diagnosis, Rodriguez's mother lost her battle with cancer.

"That wasn't my mother. You wouldn't have even guessed that it was the same person," Rodriguez said about the way the treatments changed her mother's looks.

Before her death, Black decided to take people on a journey through her battle with cancer, to warn others about the dangers of tobacco use, and broadcast it on YouTube.

In the video recorded in December 2004, Black talks about how it all started with a pain in her chest, saying that was the day her world stopped. Her lungs were the issue.

"The message I really want to get out to everyone, today, is that lung cancer does kill. I heard all my life that lung cancer kills, but I didn't realize that lung cancer was such a silent killer. You can have lung cancer and not even know it," Black said in the video titled "Lung Cancer -- A Family Up in Smoke."

Rodriguez recalled with tears in her eyes how her mother always did the best she could to give her children everything they needed.

"But in reality when it comes down to it, she chose the cigarettes over us. The nicotine had such a hold over her life," Rodriguez said.

Now, Rodriguez fights against smoking, starting with the younger generation and teaching others that there are resources to help them quit.

"We really want to prevent the younger generation from ever getting addicted," she said.

As the tobacco prevention coordinator with East Central District Health Department, Rodriguez talks to students and other people in Platte and Colfax counties to educate them on the dangers of smoking, relating her mother's death to the conversation.

"When I talk to others about quitting, they're able to relate to me because of my mother. And they get a firsthand understanding of what it can do to a family," she said. "You need a passion for health to do this kind of work."

Rodriguez never smoked. Growing up around it was enough for her to never crave nicotine.

"Honestly, I can't ever remember my mom not having a cigarette in her hand," she said. "I wanted my mom to quit."

During high school, Rodriguez took part in anti-tobacco projects, hoping it would encourage her mom to quit.

"My mom told me when it was too late that she wanted to listen to me and what I had to say, but the nicotine had too much of a hold on her," Rodriguez said.

The Albion native had a hard time accepting the fact that she was a 20-year-old without parents. But instead of giving up on life, she used that to push herself to become someone worthwhile to her community.

Even though she graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2010 with a degree in psychology, she doesn't mind not using it. All she really wanted to do was help others.

"I love what I do and I love that I get to share my mom's legacy," she said.

After moving back from Omaha, Rodriguez made it her mission to make a difference anywhere she could.

Besides coordinating tobacco prevention education programs and "Kick Butts" projects, the 30-year-old Rodriguez also serves the community behind the scenes through coalitions dealing with tobacco, substance abuse, child well being and breast feeding. She is part of the Comprehensive Juvenile Service Plan Committee, which makes recommendations to develop a long-range plan to serve at-risk youths in the community.

Rodriguez also volunteers at Connection Christian Church, helping lead Sunday school.

Although she has a hand in so many programs, Rodriguez makes sure to stay focused on her family, as well.

Her husband of eight years, Erick, and 5-year-old daughter Makaylie are expecting an addition to the family as Rodriguez is three months pregnant with her second child.

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