A Canadian and former model, Tarbox started smoking cigarettes early. After 30 years of two packs a day, she was diagnosed with lung cancer that spread to her brain.
Tarbox, which is her real name, decided to spend the rest of her life showing kids the real consequences of smoking. “Barb never, ever preached,” said Ava Dale, who helped book some of her speeches at Canadian schools. “She spoke from the heart. She gave smoking and someone dying of lung cancer a reality that those kids would never ever forget.”
When she spoke to students, they could contrast a large photograph from her modeling days with the cancer-ravaged woman standing in front of them, hairless from her cancer treatments. “There’s not really any good reason to be smoking, and her coming to our school is just another reason to quit, probably the biggest one,” said one student.
“When people talk about quitting smoking, that’s going to be the first name that pops into their head.” After several months of traveling to schools, Tarbox died May 18 from her cancers. She was 42.