AN anti-smoking campaign featuring five people who are seriously ill with cigarette-related disease and one who is now dead is launched today in the wake of the Government's #100m commitment to reduce smoking.
The #2.5m Health Education Authority advertising campaign is described as its hardest-hitting to date and will run from Boxing Day to No Smoking Day on March 10 on radio and television.
It features people in their 30s and 40s who have contracted lung cancer and oral cancer as a result of smoking cigarettes and is aimed at showing young people aged between 16-24 the reality behind the image of smoking.
Michelle, a 44-year-old who began smoking when she was 13, died after being filmed for the campaign last month. The advert, in which she talks about her two children's hopes for her survival, is being screened with the permission of her family.
Other adverts show a 48-year-old woman removing her wig to reveal the effects of the treatment she is having for lung cancer and a 39-year-old man talking of how he discovered that he had cancer in his mouth as a result of smoking 20 a day.
HEA Smoking Campaign Manager Katie Aston said: ''These adverts make painful viewing. They show ordinary people trying to come to terms with what smoking has done to them. If you smoke and think it will never happen to you I urge you to listen to what these people have to say.''
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