On December 31, 2024, I lost my son, Walker, to devastating complications caused by vaping.

By then, our world had already been shattered. From 2019 to 2024, we lived through a relentless cycle of hospitalizations, medical procedures, and complications. What began as a brief period of vaping turned into a prolonged health nightmare. This was not a story of ongoing addiction. The addiction had been overcome. What followed was a fight to breathe, to heal, and simply to survive. In the end, it was the lasting damage that took his life.

Walker McKnight was a leader, entertainer and true go-getter. At 6-foot-2, he was strong, athletic and full of life, with dreams of cheering at Florida Atlantic University. Never could I have imagined those dreams would give way to years of severe illness and an untimely death.

In February 2019, Walker came home from college with a severe cough. Within 24 hours of returning to campus, he was admitted to the emergency room with pneumonia and quickly transferred to the ICU. His lungs were so severely damaged they could no longer oxygenate his body, and he was placed on life support as his organs began to fail. I am a critical care nurse, and I had never seen anyone as sick as Walker.

While he was hospitalized, my husband went to his dorm room to gather his belongings and found mango-flavored vape devices. After five months in the ICU, Walker shared that he had only been vaping for a short time before getting sick. After that, his life changed forever.

Walker spent years on dialysis, dependent on oxygen and relearning basic motor skills. He endured repeated hospitalizations and procedures as he fought for survival. In 2022, the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville accepted him for a double lung and kidney transplant. For a brief time, we held hope. But within a year, his body began rejecting the organs, and his condition became terminal.

By December 2024, Walker no longer had the strength to sit up in bed. On New Year’s Eve, he said goodbye to the people he loved most, including his corgi Finn. Walker dreamed of one day opening an orthopedic clinic to serve others in the cheer community. Those dreams were stolen from him.

Walker’s health began declining within just a few months of vaping. My hope is that by sharing his story, parents and young people will understand the devastating consequences of vaping.

Addiction is a disease, and vaping is a trigger. We need to educate children about the dangers of nicotine addiction and tobacco products, and parents need tools and resources to have these conversations before it is too late. This tragedy can happen to any family.

That is why programs focused on prevention and education matter. The CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health leads public education campaigns that help young people understand the risks of tobacco use and supports state prevention programs and tobacco quitlines that help families access trusted information and support before a crisis happens. The CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers campaign was associated with more than 16 million quit attempts and more than one million successful quits between 2012 and 2018. Since the campaign went off the air last year, calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW have already dropped significantly, underscoring the vital role these public education efforts play.

These programs save lives by giving families the knowledge and resources they need before addiction takes hold. When she was our state’s Attorney General, U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody took legal action against Juul for marketing its products to kids. Now she has another opportunity to help protect these lifesaving efforts. I urge Moody to support and protect funding for the CDC’s tobacco prevention program. She should also speak out against recent FDA actions to allow fruit-flavored e-cigarettes onto the market and to permit other e-cigarettes to be sold even though they have not completed a scientific review by FDA.

Since losing Walker, my grief has become fuel for advocacy. I share my son’s story because I do not want another parent to experience this devastating loss. Walker would be a college graduate today if he were still here. He is not, so I will continue sharing his story in hopes of helping others.

Candace McKnight is an Orlando mother and a parent volunteer with Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes.