Meet Three Smokers Ready to Kick Butts

April 16, 2008 — -- Three smokers are taking on a quit-smoking challenge from "Good Morning America" and Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, authors of the popular "YOU" book series.

Each smoker has tried to quit before without success. This time, they will be using Oz and Mehmet's four-step plan and specific guidelines to help them.

Besides the myriad health risks smoking poses, it's a habit that ages people prematurely. For extra motivation, Visible Productions performed a virtual age progression on each smoker to give them an idea of what they would look like at 60 years old if they kept smoking and what they'd look like if they quit.

Over the next two months, the three challengers will keep video diaries to track their progress, which will be posted on ABCNews.com. Meet each of the challengers below.

Kathy Resendes, 38
"I did quit when I was 26, and that was after my son ,who was not quite two, had picked up a cigarette that was unlit, put it in his mouth, and mimicked me. I was devastated. I know it's going to get me in the end as well as my children, and it kills me."

Kathy is married with four children aged 13, 10, 8 and 5. She started smoking when she was 17, and she's had an on-again off-again love affair with cigarettes for years. Kathy says she'll stop for a few months and then start again. She quit for nine years after the incident with her son, but then started up again about four years ago. She wants to quit for the sake of her family – she knows it's bad for her kids and her husband thinks smoking is disgusting.

Brian Canova, 30
"The reason I want to quit now is I used to run six miles a day, and at this point in my life it's a jog — a jog broken up by power walking. My physical stamina has diminished. I've seen my lung capacity lessen."

Brian works as a video producer right here at ABCNews.com. He saw his grandfather struggle with emphysema, so growing up, Brian always thought smoking was a stupid habit and something he'd never do. But he started smoking socially in college. Now he smokes about a pack of cigarettes a day and lights up as soon as he wakes up in the morning. Brian has tried the nicotine patch, hypnotism and going cold turkey to try to quit, but none of them worked.

Toni Marino, 39
"The doctors recently told me I have nodules on my lung. The thing I'm scared of the most is not being able to see my nieces and nephews graduate high school, college, get married have kids. It scares me."

Toni is married with no children and she works in customer relations at the New York Sports Club. She started smoking when she was 13 years old and currently smokes a pack a day, and more if she's drinking. Toni says she smokes "the second I get out of bed." She smokes when she's stressed, but also after eating, in the car. Toni tried to quit four years ago when she had a small stroke that left her temporarily without motor function on her left side. She tried to quit again about a year ago using the patch, but she started again a day or two later.