Turlington Speaks Against Smoking

Thursday, June 15th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) â€” Christy Turlington described her father's battle with lung cancer and her own struggle to overcome smoking in an address to dozens of teens at an anti-tobacco summit.

The 31-year-old supermodel told the group she started smoking in her early teens and didn't stop even after her father suffered a heart attack blamed on his smoking.

She said she tried the nicotine patch, hypnosis, acupuncture and other methods to break the habit but nothing worked. She finally quit for good five years ago when she decided to ``just put the pack down and not pick it up again.''

Quitting smoking gave her a new sense of confidence, she said, helping her graduate from New York University. Her father quit smoking in 1996, but was soon diagnosed with cancer and died five months later.

Turlington contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society but it took several months for the agencies to agree on public service work against smoking.

``After all, there were all those pictures out there with me smoking, but we finally did it,'' Turlington said Wednesday.