I lost my mum to smoking

ONE Scot dies every 40 minutes from tobacco-linked illness, shock new research reveals.

Smoking remains the country’s biggest killer and is responsible for around a third of the nation’s cancer deaths each year.

Cancer Research UK released the new stats today, on World No Tobacco Day, as it called for the Scottish Government to beef up its policies to reduce smoking rates so less people die.

Meanwhile, the charity urged Scots to sign a petition to get the Government to create a smokefree fund that charges the tobacco industry for the harm it causes.

One person who has put her name to the cause is West Lothian mum of two Kelsey Mackay whose mother Christine Livingstone died from lung cancer aged just 52, after smoking all her adult life.

The 31-year-old wants future generations to grow up in a healthier Scotland where tobacco no longer claims lives.

Kelsey, of Armadale, said: “I miss my mum every day and it breaks my heart that she didn’t live long enough to meet my own children.”

In Scotland smoking rates in the most deprived populations remain consistently higher, with the latest stats showing 24 per cent of people in the poorest communities smoke — compared to five per cent in the most affluent.

Cancer Research UK says if trends continue, smoking rates could still be around 20 per cent in the most deprived areas by 2034 — and the charity predicts the Scottish Government will not meet its 2034 smokefree target until after 2050.

The organisation be­lieves the Holyrood administration’s upcoming tobacco control action plan is an opportunity to take bold steps and support more people to stub out.

Dr Sorcha Hume, Cancer Research UK’s public affairs manager for Scotland, said: “We need more government action so young people don’t start smoking, and more funding for the measures and services needed to help people quit.

“This World No Tobacco Day, we are urging people in Scotland to sign our petition to call on the UK Government to establish a Smokefree Fund which would make the tobacco industry pay for the harm it causes.

“And we encourage the Scottish Government to work with Westminster to help make this happen.”

Kelsey — mum to Freya, seven, and Rio, four — was heartbroken when her mum passed away in St John’s Hospital, Livingston.

Christine was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2012 and had three months of treatment — but the disease spread to her brain and medics broke the devastating news in 2013 that she had just months to live.

Kelsey said: “Mum went downhill very quickly. I helped care for her at home at first with the help of Marie Curie nurses but mum died in hospital.”

She added: “I was just 21 when mum died and my brother Callan was 19.

“Overnight we both had to grow up and stand on our own feet financially, too.

“I wish things could have turned out differently, I wish we’d had more time, more years, more chances to make memories with my mum.

But looking back, mum grew up in Scotland where so many people smoked.

“Mum smoked around 40 cigarettes a day.

“And her own mum smoked heavily, dying from a smoking related illness.

“My duty to my children is to help break that cycle so they can look ahead to a healthy future.

“More needs to be done to end the damage tobacco causes.”

Evidence shows stop smoking services give people the best chance of quitting.

But Cancer Research UK says that NHS Quit Your Way programmes must reach those most at need.

Dr Hume said: “The Scottish Government promised a new tobacco control action plan later this year and we are waiting with bated breath for that to show.

“These kinds of plans are not very exciting but they are really important for setting out what needs to be done.”

And she added: “One person is admitted to hospital every six minutes because smoking and tobacco causes the death of one person every 40 minutes in Scotland. I think that’s quite frightening.

“Losing loved ones will have a huge emotional toll on families.

“Also, just being admitted to hospital — because our health service is so overstretched at the moment — has a toll on the patient, their family and friends, as well as the NHS itself”