A waitress, Crowe developed lung cancer in 2002. Yet she had never smoked. But after working for 40 years in a smoky restaurant in Ottawa, Ont., Canada, she developed the cancer from her customers’ secondhand smoke.
Crowe became an advocate for smoke-free workplaces, explaining in TV ads what had happened to her. She became the “matriarch of the anti-smoking movement,” said Member of Provincial Parliament Jim Watson. “She fell into this anti-smoking passion because she experienced first-hand what so many people have suffered over the years. She was very sincere in her approach and she just wanted to ensure that no one else had to suffer like she had to suffer as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke.”
She was successful in her lobbying effort — the Smoke Free Ontario Act was passed by the Ontario legislature — but when she died from her cancer on May 22, it was still a week from taking effect. She was 61.