Smoking Ban News

My last update to the site was when we found out that Mumma K had 3 months to live. The good news was that she did indeed see Christmas. However on February 20th 2010 Mumma K sadly breathed her last breathe.

It back in November 2008 when diagnosis was confirmed making it a year and a few months until she passed away. The run up to Christmas 2009 was a stressful one, with Mumma K’s condition deteriorating considerably. Now almost completely completely bed ridden it’s a sad waiting game. Incredibly Mumma K surpassed doctor’s and our own opinion how much longer she had left to live. In the last 2 months she required round the clock supervision. Mumma K had expressed that she did not want to go into a hospice and her wish was granted. Various family members and nurse took shifts to care for her.

The strength to fight the effects of the cancer were incredible. Mumma K basically tried to not sleep (because she thought if she sleeped she’d never wake up). She would sit up in her bed and continuously keep one leg out of the bed with a foot on the floor – a subconscious indicator that she’s not going yet. Even right up to her last day she moved into the lounge – sitting upright fighting against the meds and the cancer to stay alive. Mumma K fought against the palliative drugs throughout the last few weeks, which were even doubled up to try and knock her out – so that she could at least have a normal night’s sleep.

On the final day the whole family had arranged to meet up round there at 6:30pm. A family tea was planned and i was going to make a chilli for everyone. Strangely everyone that was planning to go round turned up late, ourselves included. As we walked through the door about 10 minutes we discovered the horrific yet fateful news that moments earlier Mumma K just breathed her last breathe. Needless to say it was an emotional evening. Having seen my Dad breathe his breathe after having a brain tumour it was something i hoped i’d never see again.

Mumma K’s battle was long yet she always had a friends and family around her right to the end. She was a warm and loving lady which loved living life to the full. She will be missed but never forgotten.

A week or so after her death it was time to have her old bed taken away. Poppa K had purchased many gadgets to help him and one was a wireless doorbell. This meant that Mumma K could get help while Poppa K sat in the conservatory (or should that be sanctuary!). As the removal guys were taking the bed out the doorbell went off – it had been in the left in the kitchen. A confused and shocked Poppa K tried to work out was going on, and then it rang again! The batteries were soon removed after this scary incident. But we like to think that Mumma K was watching down on him and maybe cursing (in a good way) the removal of the bed.

In writing these blog posts i hope that at least one person will think again and attempt to give up smoking for good. It’s not easy but lung cancer is truly a horrible way to go. There are a lot of support lines available as well as aids to help quit.

Nick Hogan, 43, from Chorley, was sentenced to six months in prison for failing to pay fines for smoking ban breaches at his two Bolton pubs.

Hogan was found guilty of breaching the smoking ban in January 2008 at the Swan and the Barristers pubs he ran.

He fought the law and the law won.

Read full story on the BBC here

Sorry, got no time to write about this news. This is a great pledge by the UK government – lets hope they stick to it.

A plan to halve the number of smokers in England over the next 10 years has been unveiled by ministers.

The number of people smoking has fallen by a quarter in the past decade to 21%, and the proposed target is 10% by 2020.

Measures being considered include removing branding from packets and banning cigarette vending machines, as will happen in Scotland next year.

Smokers’ lobby group Forest criticised the proposals for eroding people’s ability to make lifestyle choices.

Health charity Ash said that while it supported the plans in principle, there was a need for more detail and stronger pledges.

Read full story

Graph showing proportion of people smoking in Great Britain

The government said each year smoking caused 80,000 deaths and cost the NHS £2.7bn.

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said the strategy would “discourage children from taking up smoking and prevent a great number of unnecessary and early deaths”.

The smoking ban in enclosed public places was introduced in Scotland in 2006, and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland separately in 2007.

It’s been quite a while since my last update on Mumma K’s progress. The last update in April was the relatively good news that the radiotherapy had helped shrink the tumour in the affected lung. However it was known that the cancer had already spread quite a bit. One of the things with lung cancer is most people don’t know they’ve got it because the symptoms are undetectable. It was the lump in the neck that spurred on an x-ray which confirmed the worst fears.

There are 4 stages of lung cancer and sadly Mumma K was diagnosed as Stage 3. This late detection being the main reason for the spread. What makes things worse is that 2 years prior to all this Mumma K had issues with her throat, yet even though doctors knew of her smoking, no chest x-ray was done. It’s all too easy to say ‘what if’ but who knows if this was an early sign of problems.

In August Mumma K was started on a relatively new chemotherapy drug called Erlotinib. Tarceva (it’s brand name) is a advanced non small cell lung cancer treatment for people who have already had chemotherapy which is no longer working. It comes with range of side effects, as most chemo treatments do, and it was noticeable after a week or so that the treatment appeared to make Mumma K’s breathing difficult. It was in the last few months that Mumma K was deteriorating substantially with even short walks becoming a struggle. In September we went on a family trip to Whipsnade zoo, which wouldn’t been possible without a wheelchairs and lifts.

A check-up yesterday confirmed our fears and Mumma K was given 3 months to live. Since diagnosis of the cancer back in December 2008 we’ve always remained staunchly positive around her and never allowed her to get down. The only good thing to come out of this news is that she’ll see one more Christmas. So we’re hoping to make this special and also we’re aiming to get her to London Zoo as soon as possible to see her much loved gorillas. Hopefully she’ll be well enough to make the trip as currently her back is in a lot of pain – which means that she’s doped out on Morphine.

I added a Facebook status last night aimed at my friends that smoke. “If you’re a smoker, give up now. If not for yourself, then do it for the people that care about you because they’re the ones that you will hurt most when you’re dying from it”. It’s a harsh statement. I know giving up smoking is a hard thing but if out of all this one person changes their life by giving up(or even giving it damn good shot) i’ll be a happy man.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could detect which people were more likely to develop lung cancer? Or even if we could tell if they had no risk at all?

Well hopefully we’ve got a few steps closer to finding this out. A formidable medical survey has been conducted in Singapore and Shanghai. It has found that people with higher levels of the chemcial NNAL in their blood stream were 43% more likely to get lung cancer.

The chemical NNAL can be measured from a urine sample. It’s purpose is thought to metabolise tobacco in the body.

This test doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable to smoke if you’re found to have a low risk. There are plenty of other ways to die from smoking including: heart disease, emphysema,and other cancers.

Read the full story and audio file here