“Smoking is a deadly addiction and, like my mum, most people who smoke start when they are young and regret ever picking up a cigarette,” said Damian. “I know she would back raising the age of sale of tobacco 100%.
“My mum’s absence clouds every birthday, celebration or special occasion – not to mention all the ordinary, everyday moments we’ve missed out on enjoying together.”
Smoking has taken many more people from their families since Domini died in 2011. Over the past 10 years, more than 800,000 people in the UK have lost their lives to tobacco.
Over time, that number will go down. Damian’s “small part” will help make sure we lose fewer people to tobacco-related illness in the years to come, so future generations don’t miss out on the moments that matter, however big or small they might be.
Lynne’s story – a campaigner’s commitment
Lynne works with us at Cancer Research UK as a volunteer Campaigns Ambassador. Like Damian, she’s seen the effects of tobacco on her family’s health.
“So many of my family died from cancers and other illnesses that had been caused by or exacerbated by smoking,” Lynne said. “My father and many of my aunts and uncles all smoked for much of their lives and sadly suffered the consequences, with lung cancer and emphysema.”
She first joined our work when we were campaigning to remove branding from tobacco products in 2013.
In just a little over a decade, she’s helped move the conversation from changing what tobacco packs look like to phasing out the legal sale of tobacco altogether.
