Time to create a smokefree generation without delay
Health campaigners and smoking survivors plea to new Government
Smoking survivors and campaigners from the North East will be in Parliament today to call on the new Government to commit to creating a smokefree generation without delay. It comes more than a year since the previous Government announced plans to raise the age of sale for tobacco.
Fresh, Action on Smoking and Health, MPs and Peers will be attending the event held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health in Parliament.
It is now more than one year on October 4th 2023 since the former Prime Minister set out plans to create a smokefree generation by raising the age of sale for lethal tobacco products by a year every year, which would have meant that children who turned 14 or younger in 2023 could never legally be sold tobacco.
Cancer survivors Sue Mountain and Cathy Hunt will be joining Debbie and Sadie Thomas from Hartlepool who in 2021 lost their beloved husband and dad Denham from COPD – an incurable disease which destroys the lungs and is nearly always caused by smoking. Their film and TV advert as part of Fresh’s Smoking Survivors campaign will be played for MPs and health leaders.
There is strong North East support to create a smokefree generation with:
- 73% of North East adults supporting plans to raise the age of sale by a year each year.
- 78% of North East adults support ending smoking with a target of fewer than 5% smoking by 2030 (YouGov).
Over 50 organisations from the North East submitted responses in a major consultation supporting measures to create a Smokefree Generation – from fire and rescue, local authorities and NHS Trusts to the Association of Directors of Public Health North East and the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board.
Ailsa Rutter, OBE Director of Fresh and Balance, said: “We are calling on the new Government to bring forward now lifesaving action to prevent more children taking up smoking and dying in the future. Every day more children take up smoking and get hooked on a lethal addiction.
“Countless families in our region have suffered from the death and diseases of smoking. There is huge public support for a smokefree generation.
“MPs now have one of the biggest chances they will ever have to prevent our biggest cause of cancer, stop the start of young smokers and create a better life free of addiction for our children. We are urging them to take this chance and not delay further.”
Mum of three Sue Mountain, 59, from South Shields, started smoking aged 11. She underwent laser treatment aged 48 after a biopsy revealed she had laryngeal cancer in 2012. The cancer then returned in 2015 and then again in 2017 but she is now cancer free. She will be making a heartfelt plea in a speech to parliamentarians.
“When they first announced the plans around raising the age of sale for the next generation, I thought it was amazing. This just now needs to happen as soon as possible.
“The terrible fact is that every day more children will start to smoke. Unless they quit many will spends tens of thousands of pounds and suffer a disease like cancer or COPD as a direct result. Every day we lose feels like such a waste.”
“Our MPs need to make this happen. This is all about a better life for our children and grandchildren – free of waking up needing a cigarette, free of the costs and free of the health risks.”
Sadie Thomas, 25, from Hartlepool, watched her dad Denham suffer for years with COPD, housebound and on oxygen, before his death. She said: “I have seen how smoking devastates a family. As a mum myself now I love the thought of my daughter growing up in a world where she will never smoke and we no longer see these terrible diseases as just a part of life.”
Amanda Healy, Durham County Council’s Director of Public Health and Chair of the Association of Directors of Public Health North East Network, said: “The response from local authorities, NHS trusts and many other organisations and individuals to create a smokefree generation has been overwhelming. Smoking now costs our region £2.35bn a year – a cost not just felt by families but to our economy, local authority social care budgets and to the NHS.
“The North East has seen the biggest fall in smoking in England in the last two decades, but for generations saw the worst outcomes from diseases like lung cancer and COPD and the impact in our communities with people left disabled or dying too early from smoking.
“There are very few families who haven’t seen a loved one suffer because of smoking…that is why people don’t want that for their children or grandchildren.”
Also at the event is Cathy Hunt from County Durham, had half a lung removed when she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2015. She underwent surgery again last year when the cancer returned and also had a kidney removed after she was diagnosed with kidney cancer.
“We need to create a smokefree generation and we also need tobacco companies to be funding support for people to quit. It can’t come soon enough, to stop kids today becoming lung cancer patients in their 40s and 50s. The pain, the surgery and the worry of lung cancer is the last thing I want for my daughters or anybody else.
“Tobacco companies make and sell a product which is addictive and kills 2 out of 3 smokers. They make profit out of pain and addiction. We now have a chance to stop the start of young smokers and I would urge everyone and anyone to support this.”