• 11/1/2004
  • Liverpool, England
  • Catherine Jones
  • Liverpool Echo

The emotional trauma caused by smoking deaths is at the heart of a new drive launched today. Health chiefs estimate that one million people a year are left bereaved when a loved one dies of a smoking-related disease.

A TV advert featuring Bootle smoker Anthony Hicks, 58, is being relaunched as part of the Don’t Give Up Giving Up campaign in the run-up to Christmas.
The father of two had head and neck cancer as a result of his 20 to 40-a-day habit.

He died shortly after the hard-hitting television advert – featuring him in a hospital bed struggling to breathe – was filmed, and before he was able to see daughter Alexandra, who lives in America.

New national print adverts carrying the slogan “the effects of smoking always hit home” will show photographs of Mr Hicks with family during happier times.
His other daughter Kirsten, 22, has said: “The last time I saw him alive was on a TV screen in December, as I watched the tape of the advertisement.
“I sat watching and tears streamed down my face.”

It is the first time the campaign has addressed the impact of smoking beyond physical health. An estimated 120,000 people die of smoking related diseases each year, 1,000 in Liverpool.

NHS Smoking Helpline adviser Marie Murray said: “The impact of smoking is like four double-decker buses crashing and killing everyone on board, every day.
“That means every year about a million people – the same number that live in Birmingham – are bereaved due to smoking.”
Chris Owens of the Liverpool-based Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation said: “Every person is someone’s son, daughter, father or mother and their illness and death can have a devastating impact on people.”