Gruen Von Behrens

Gruen Von Behrens in 2008 was a 30-year-old survivor of oral cancer caused by smokeless tobacco. He has endured over 40 painful and disfiguring surgeries to save his life, including one radical surgery that removed half his neck muscles, lymph nodes and 1/3 of his tongue.

Gruen grew up in a rural farming community and first tried spit tobacco at age 13 to "fit in." By age 14 he was addicted to nicotine and at age 17 he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. He is a rare survivor of oral cancer.

Although his speech is slurred, nine years ago he started giving talks to discourage people from using smokeless tobacco.

Contact
Gruen Von Behrens c/o Oral Health America 410 N. Michigan, Suite 352 Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 836-9900 (312) 836-9986 fax Contact Person: Joseph Donohue Email: joeAToralhealthamerica.org (Subsitute an @ sign for the word "AT")