South Tyneside's shocking health legacy: Three people a week die from smoking

And another four a week are being diagnosed with smoking-related cancer which continues to blight lives across the borough.

But now, the fightback is on.

A hard-hitting campaign was launched today with the message “give up for your own health as well as your friends and family”.

Leading the battle is campaign group Fresh with the backing of council bosses.  

Amanda Healy, director of public health for South Tyneside Council, said: “Smoking is the biggest cause of avoidable ill-health and death in South Tyneside and South Tyneside Council is supporting this campaign. It is easy to put the harm of smoking out of the mind, which is why campaigns like these play a very important role.”

Figures for 2013 show there were 989 cases of cancer across South Tyneside.

Of those, 192 new cases were down to smoking and so were 149 deaths.

Worryingly, a survey of North East smokers found over 34% could not name one cancer caused by smoking – unless they were prompted –and there are 16 forms of the disease caused by smoking.

But help is at hand and people can find out more about local support and free quitting tools to download at Quit16.co.uk

Ailsa Rutter, director of Fresh, said: “Most of us know about lung cancer, but it’s worrying how few people are aware that poisons in smoke attack so many different parts of the body, whether they smoke cigarettes or roll-ups.

“We are urging anyone who smokes to think how their family would cope if it was them and make 2016 their year to make a new start. Quitting might not always be easy, but continuing to smoke is often much, much harder.”

Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer Research UK’s head of health and patient information, said: “The best thing smokers can do is give up – for their own health as well as their friends’ and family’s. Quitting can be extremely difficult, but it greatly reduces the risk of smoking-related cancers, as well as other illness such as heart and lung disease.”

On the plus side, the North East had the largest drop in smokers nationwide between 2013-14 and the biggest fall over the past decade. But around 416,000 people still smoke in the region, costing the NHS £88.8million a year, the regional economy £37.5million and local authorities £37million in social care costs.