KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video - Someone 2 Know: Lee Radtke
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Kristen Remington
Channel 2 News
Lee Radtke has a powerful voice; he just needs batteries to use it.
He puts a microphone-like device up to this throat, which vibrates it, and mouths these words to a fourth grade class. "I cannot talk because [doctors] had to remove my voice box because of cancer from second-hand smoke.”
Albeit robotic sounding, Radtke is able to speak thanks to modern day technology.
We caught up with Radtke during his presentation at Selliger Elementary School in Carson City. He opened by telling them this. "I am very lucky to be alive as one out of three people who get throat cancer die from it."
Since being diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006, Radtke has survived six surgeries, resulting in a hole in his neck to help him breathe. It's a permanent reminder of a vice he's never even tried. Radtke told the students, “I’ve never had a cigarette in my mouth ever."
Plenty of people in his life have however. Aside from family and friends, the 70-year-old recalls spending many hours in a corporate office and nearly everyone smoked during meetings. “We didn't know better at that time.”
He says now we do and there is no excuse to be around second-hand smoke. That is the message he is spreading to kids. With the help of a hand-held computer that speaks on his behalf and a device that vibrates his throat for him, he is able to communicate with kids. He tells them it is okay to ask someone to stop smoking around them. He also shows them the hole in his neck, which is, perhaps, most effective.
Radtke has spoken to more than 3,500 students in Carson City and he does not plan to quit anytime soon. “Kids don't always have rights. But they do have the right to say 'please don't smoke around me because I don't want to get cancer.'"
