Dad's lung cancer 'hell' made man quit smoking

Paul Kirtley's dad Jim just before he died of lung cancer at the age of 61

A man urging people to stop smoking says the pain of watching his own father die from lung cancer made him want to quit.

Paul Kirtley, 73, started smoking at 11 and only quit after his father Jim - a lifelong smoker - was diagnosed with lung cancer and died months later.

Mr Kirtley helped to nurse him and said he saw him "go through hell" before his dad died in his arms.

Kate Anderson, a public health specialist at Somerset Council has launched its new 'Smokefree Somerset' campaign to encourage 45,000 people to quit by 2030 and stop young people starting.

Mr Kirtley, who finally quit smoking in his 50s after his dad died said: "My father was diagnosed with lung cancer and was only 61 when he died. After he was diagnosed he lasted about nine months.

"I helped to nurse him and saw him go through hell as a result of smoking all his life.

"Neither of us could have envisaged when me at the age of 11 and him at whatever age he was... we puffed our lives away literally by smoking.

"All the kids on the council estate thought it was big, thought it was clever.

NHS Somerset and Somerset Council said its campaign hoped to cut the number of smokers in the county by 75% in five years, from 60,000 people to 15,000.

It planned to do more work with Trading Standards, different health groups and schools.

Ms Anderson said a big part of the campaign was encouraging people to share their stories of how they quit and why to help existing smokers stop.

Paul Kirtley now busks to support good causes and raise money for local charities

Mr Kirtley added: "Vaping is supposed to be more benign but anything you stick in your lungs that's a foreign matter cannot be a good thing.

"If you're smoking think twice, listen to what I've said and stop."

Ms Anderson said vaping was only a "quit tool" for adults and ideally they wanted to support people stopping that too.

The new Smoke Free Somerset campaign included online resources and people were encouraged to speak to their GP to get onto a stop smoking scheme.