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Heather Crowe Smoke-Free Ontario Award marks strategy’s 10th anniversary

March 24, 2016   ·   0 Comments

The Ontario government is now accepting applications for its Heather Crowe Smoke-Free Ontario Award, which will recognize anti-smoking advocates who have made a significant contribution toward achieving a Smoke-Free Ontario.

Heather Crowe was a Canadian waitress who became the public face of Canada’s anti-smoking campaign.

She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002. Famously claiming to have “never smoked a day in her life,” she believed her cancer to be the result of regularly breathing second-hand smoke at her Ottawa restaurant workplace for over 40 years. After her diagnosis, she traveled across Canada to advocate for improved second-hand smoke by-laws.

She died in 2006, the same year the government launched its Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy. Up to 10 of the awards will be presented to recognize individuals, groups and organizations that have championed tobacco control in Ontario over the past 10 years.

The nomination submissions can be made by anyone, and nominations are open until April 29. The award winners will be recognized May 31, on World No Tobacco Day.

Smoking rates in Ontario dropped from 24.5 per cent of the population in 2000 to 17.4 per cent in 2014, representing about 408,250 fewer smokers.

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