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'Smoking almost cost me my life'
Mum Lisa Kirkham was just 25 when she received the devastating news she had mouth cancer.
She began smoking at the age of nine and says the habit "nearly killed me".
Now Lisa is warning about the dangers of smoking – and says a new Government crackdown on tobacco is not tough enough.
After her cancer battle, she has vowed to ensure her children Aimee, eight, Mark, six, and Nathan, 11 months, never take up smoking.
She said: "I will do everything I can to make sure my children never pick up a cigarette.
"There is nothing glamorous about it. It nearly killed me."
It is believed Lisa's cancer of the salivary gland began developing when she was just 21.
After being diagnosed with the condition at Sunderland Royal Hospital, she underwent surgery and six weeks of radiotherapy, which proved successful.
Lisa, now 27, welcomed the Government move to try to cut smoking levels through England's first ever National Tobacco Strategy.
Its vision is to halve the number of smokers by 2020.
Plans include moving cigarettes out of sight in shops, removing cigarette vending machines, cracking down on illegal tobacco and reducing second hand smoke – possibly by banning lighting up in entrances to buildings.
But Lisa, of Dawdon, Seaham, is not convinced they will work.
She said: "I don't think they will stop people smoking. They will only do it if they really want to.
"Smokers are getting angry about the way things are going, and think they'll soon only be able to smoke in their own home.
"This just makes them more determined not to do what people are telling them."
She added: "The only way to force people to give up is to put prices up – and keep on putting them up."
However, Lisa, who started smoking as a youngster as she thought it was glamorous and cool, backed the National Tobacco Strategy's aim to cut the number of children who smoke from six per cent now to one per cent by 2020.
As the Government launched its new strategy, the North East was highlighted as an example to be mirrored elsewhere.
The region has seen the biggest decline in smoking in England, from 29 per cent of people smoking in 2005 down to 21 per cent of people in 2008 – a total of about 170,000 fewer smokers.
Smokers' pressure group Forest criticised the new proposals.
Director Simon Clark said: "When the Government starts setting targets it is rather dangerous, because the only way they can reach targets is to introduce very illiberal, very draconian legislation.
"What we are seeing is a campaign of de-normalisation. I think it is creating a very intolerant, very divisive society."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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