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Man Who Lost His Family To Cigarettes

Tuesday 7 March 2006

Belfast man Eddie Millen lost his father, brother and two sisters to lung cancer – and has himself finally managed to give up smoking after 54 years.

Belfast man Eddie Millen lost his father, brother and two sisters to lung cancer – and has himself finally managed to give up smoking after 54 years.

Eddie, 62, took up cigarettes when he was just eight years old and at one point was smoking 60 a day. Now he is warning young people that the habit is “crazy.”

“If my story helps even one person to give up cigarettes, then I’ll feel that I have achieved something,” he says.

Eddie, from Ballymurphy Road in west Belfast, abandoned the weed in October with the help of nicotine replacement patches and sheer willpower. But it was the death of his second sister just over a year earlier that made him realise he had to do something.

“I’d already lost my father, and then in the space of 18 months my other sister and my brother. They were all smokers. But when my second sister died, that was when I decided I had to stop myself. I tried various things, like acupuncture, which didn’t work. But I finally managed – and now I want my two daughters to do the same. One of them has tried and failed, but she’s trying again and is going to see a hypnotist this week. “
Eddie, who suffers from the chest disease emphysema, has been congratulated on his success in beating the tobacco habit by Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke. Its Chief Executive, Andrew Dougal, said: “As we have often pointed out, nicotine is more addictive than heroin, and our best advice to young people is not to start in the first place.”

The charity is marking No Smoking Day by offering health and fitness advice to pupils at La Salle School in west Belfast.

Eddie wishes such advice had been around when he was younger.

“When I took up cigarettes, everyone smoked,” he says. “Film stars would light up on screen. As well as that, cigarettes were cheap. You could buy them in packets of five, and we didn’t know they caused cancer and other diseases. But kids nowadays have no excuse. I see them smoking, and I think they’re crazy to do it when there’s so much information about the dangers.”

Saying goodbye to tobacco has had another, unexpected, health benefit for Eddie. “I am eating better,” he says. “But when I was smoking I would never have thought of eating a piece of fruit. Now I can taste food properly, and when I smell smoke on someone’s clothes, I wonder how I went through so many years smelling the same way.”


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