Smoker facing heart surgery warns youngsters of dangers

11:40am Thursday 13th March 2008

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By Camilla Sutcliffe »

A SMOKER who has been told he faces complicated heart surgery which could kill him has warned youngsters against taking up smoking.

Father-of-four and grandfather-of-two Leslie Swain, 54, of Kipling Place, Great Harwood, said he was now determined to kick the habit for his family.

He spoke out to coincide with national No Smoking Day, which took place on Wednesday.

As part of the day, hundreds took up the East Lancashire Primary Care Trust's challenge to give up for the week. Research shows smokers are more likely to give up permanently if they have lasted seven days without the habit.

Mr Swain was diagnosed with emphysema two years ago, and later tests showed that he also has coronary heart disease, and an abdominal aortic aneurysm which could kill him instantly.

He has now been told that he needs a triple heart bypass operation, even though this could further damage his aorta - the major blood vessel linking the heart to the rest of the body - which will be repaired in a second operation.

Mr Swain has been a smoker since school age, but began smoking heavily in the late 1980s, after his second-youngest son Karl was left with severe brain damage following an accident. He became a full-time carer to his son, and later to his wife Rita, who has a ruptured spleen.

He said: "People used to ask me why I bothered smoking at all, because it was literally three or four a day. But after Karl's accident, it went up to 30 or 40 a day, and has been ever since.

"I rolled my own cigarettes, and even when I was told I had emphysema it didn't stop me smoking.

"But when you are in front of a thoracic surgeon and they look at you in that way that says they mean business, and you find out that you have both these things that could kill you, you don't need telling any more.

"If I had a heart attack now, the chances are it would be a big one and I wouldn't survive it.

"My grandson Kenan is three and he's always coming up to me and saying naughty Granddad - stop smoking', and when I look at his face I want to make sure I'm here to see him grow up.

"People say it must be like being told you're terminally ill, and that's what it does feel like, but I have got to fight it because I have my wife to look after. I'm no good to her dead, am I?

"When you're young you think you're invincible and immortal, but then you get told something like this and you realise you are not. Young people don't realise how much damage they are doing, but they don't want to end up like me."

Smoking causes increased blood pressure and damages the lining of the aorta, making it swell like a balloon. If it bursts, the patient can die within minutes.

Mr Swain is now using a nicotine-replacement inhalator to control his cravings, and it is more than a week since his last cigarette.

Stop-smoking services in East Lancashire have a success rate of up to 79 per cent, but smoking rates in the region are still higher than most areas of the UK.

The PCT's Stop Smoking Co-ordinator Christine Donnelly said: "We know only too well how hard it can be for people to give up smoking, and we are definitely not here to judge. But we know that with help, people can achieve what they want, and kick the habit."

The Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Stop Smoking Service is available on 01282 607002, while the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley service is on 01254 358095.