I Wish I Could Turn Back Time’: A Mother’s Fight Against Tobacco Addiction and Lung Cancer
Cathy Hunt, a mum of four from County Durham, was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2015 and ended up with half a lung removed. She had to break the news to her teenage daughters and even recorded a goodbye video in case she did not survive her operation.
“For too long, smoking has been sold as a matter of “personal choice.” But anyone who has watched a loved one struggle to quit knows the truth: tobacco addiction strips away freedom.
The cigarette was the most effective device ever mass manufactured to hook people when young – and also one of the most lethal.
I grew up in a poor family and it was normal to smoke. Like many families my parents smoked around us, and we were exposed to smoke from an early age, and nobody thought anything of it. I started smoking at the age of 11.
I developed lung cancer just before I turned 50, caused by smoking. Telling my children I had lung cancer was much worse than the surgery – my daughter was right in the middle of her GCSEs. I remember all the glamorous cigarette adverts from my youth. Believe me, there is nothing glamorous about having the scar from breaking into my ribs and cutting into my lungs, and not being able to wear the clothes I would want to.
I’ve blamed myself over many sleepless nights and hospital visits. But tobacco companies prefer it that way. They don’t make profits from informed adults making rational decisions. They thrive on keeping people addicted and buying more cigarettes. Most smokers start before they’re old enough to understand the risks, and by the time they do, quitting can be hard.
That’s why reducing smoking and raising the age of sale for tobacco under the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is not about nanny-state politics—it’s about common sense and fairness.
I’m also appalled at how tobacco companies have also modified cigarette filters over the decades so people can inhale more of the poisons which cause lung cancer deeper into their lungs. They sold the myth that filters protected smokers when they probably made the harms worse.
We all know the NHS is under strain and smoking worsens that. When I was in hospital the doctors and nurses who saved my life at the time were incredible – but this will be ongoing for the rest of my life. Every three months I have to go back to hospital for scans which are time consuming and expensive. I can’t understand why tobacco companies out of their billions are not being made to pay something towards that through a levy.
Smoking keeps people trapped for decades, and then hands the bill to families, communities, and the taxpayer. Nobody who starts smoking young ever means to smoke for life. It robs people of productive years, pushes families into poverty through lost income and lon-term sickness, and leaves children growing up without parents or grandparents who should still be there.
Raising the age of sale is a forward-looking step that protects the next generation from having their free choice taken away and from being lured into addiction in the first place. Fewer smokers means fewer hospital beds filled, fewer lives cut short, and fewer families pushed into hardship
I’ve never met anyone who smokes and doesn’t wish they could quit. Myself, I wish every day I could turn the clock back to the time I first picked up a cigarette, or the times I thought about quitting and didn’t. Because you never think it’s going to happen to you.
Most people don’t want their kids to smoke, whichever political party they support. In my part of the world, they’ve already seen more than enough friends and loved ones suffer and die from it.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill may not stop every child from smoking but it will help many more avoid it, I want our children to grow up and live their lives to their full potential – and that includes not being drawn into toxic tobacco and the death and disease it brings.”