World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed around the world every year on 31st May. It was created by the member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1987.
The day is further intended to draw attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to more than 7 million deaths each year worldwide, including 890,000 of which are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Each year, WHO selects a theme for the day in order to create a more unified global message for WNTD. In many of its WNTD themes and related publicity-materials, the WHO emphasizes the idea of “truth.”
The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2019 is ‘’Make Every Day World No Tobacco Day’’. KCA University marked the WNTD on the 30th of May 2019 at their campus. One of the key speakers was KRU Chairman Oduor Gangla who spoke on sports and good health.
At the beginning of his speech he posed a question to the audience;
‘’What does it take to be a professional athlete – the right diet, hard work or just pure talent?
To which there was a heated debate for a few minutes with each participant giving their opinion and school of thought on this matter.
‘’Any sport requires dedication, hard work and stamina from its players to be able to succeed in that given field. But what sort of fitness regimes do sportsmen & women follow and what is it that separates the best from the rest?’’
To which another heated debate ensued before he concluded,
‘’Their health and insane discipline to their training regimes that they put themselves through, day after day, week after week for an entire year is what makes them different. It’s not normal but it’s the price you pay to be the best. Of key is their health and tobacco is known to do a lot of damage to athlete performance’’
‘’Your health is your wealth and key to success as an athlete’’ concluded, Chairman Oduor Gangla
