'Mommy, you're killing me'
03/09/06
The war on cigarettes is in full swing in Britain as an anti-smoking group has started a campaign that gets children to draw pictures of their parents smoking with captions like "mommy, you're killing me."
The group hopes a heart-felt message from children will get some parents to kick the habit.
Most smokers are adults, but many who suffer the side-effects are much, much younger.
So those trying to persuade us to quit smoking believe it's only children who can help us kick the habit.
The images in a book published by one cancer charity today were all drawn by youngsters desperate for their parents to give up like Lewis Michael Waite, 10, who had to live with his mom's secondhand smoke.
"Sometimes she would smoke in the car, but not a lot. I really, really didn’t like it. So I used to open the window," he said.
The picture he drew for her made her give up for good after years of trying.
"As they grow they start to get the idea that smoking's not good for you, so they're looking at you with that look of you're smoking and why are you doing that to yourself and to us, so you question that, big time," said Michael's mom, Julie O'Brien.
Pete abused smoke for 50 years. He grew up following the example of his parents who both died of smoke-related diseases.
Now he's recovering from throat cancer and is an ex-smoker.
There will be many like singer Charlotte Church who learned from his example.
"I was smoking 20-25 cigarettes a day, and, which is pretty bad really, and I just started noticing an effect on my breathing and on my voice and I thought this has got to stop now. This is my trade. I really can't be messing around with that," said Church.
The charity that has brought out this latest appeal to quit, believes only children can make smokers realize what's at stake.
"And that appeal from a child is very, very powerful. For their parents who are really, really worried about their smoking and they want them to quit and they're really willing to help them. That's really important," said Chris Owens of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
Anti-smoking campaigners believe giving up today could save your life and family.