I was planning my funeral but quitting cigs hasgivenme everything to live for
Bold green, , £25, M&S Wrap top, £42, Oasis MARION Cairns had smoked for 50 years but finally quit the habit last year and was enjoying her new-found health.
She had more energy and she could breathe more easily. But two months ago, she was told she had lung cancer.
At first, she thought she had only months to live and was planning her funeral – but now she’s been told an operation could rid her of cancer.
She wouldn’t be able to have surgery if she’d still been a smoker and she says quitting the habit has saved her life.
Tomorrow is World No Tobacco Day and the UK has stepped up efforts to cut smoking rates with cigarettes now sold in plain packs and smaller packs are banned.
Marion, 67, from Milngavie near Glasgow, said: “I thought I was going to die within months and started planning my own funeral. Now I’ve got everything to live for.”
She had smoked since she was 16 and had tried to stop.
Marion said: “I was smoking 35 to 40 a day – and more at the weekend. It was really affecting me and I couldn’t get a breath.
“About 15 years ago I tried patches and stopped for a couple of months – but I had the craving and went back and smoked more.”
Marion lives with husband Ted, 72, and their two grandchildren, Gran is ready for lung cancer op after using laser therapy to stop smoking Lyndsay, 23, and Jamie, 22. She said: “My grandchildren would say to me every morning, ‘Nana, please stop smoking’ because I had such an awful cough.”
In January 2016, Marion read about Anne Penman Laser Therapy and decided to try it in a bid to quit.
She said: “At first, I didn’t think it was working. After an hour, I was thinking of the cigarettes in the car.”
But when she went to the car, she realised she didn’t want to smoke.
Marion said: “I binned my cigarettes and lighter. After a couple of weeks I could take great big breaths of air – I’d never felt so good.”
But in March, Marion became ill and a chest X-ray revealed she had lung cancer.
When one doctor then said it looked like the cancer had spread to her kidney and lymph nodes, she thought she would die in months.
Marion said: “I thought, ‘I’ve got cancer in three places – I won’t see Christmas’. For two weeks I thought I was dying.
“I thought, ‘I’m not going to be here in a few months so I’m going to have a cigarette’.”
When tests were completed, another doctor revealed the cancer hadn’t spread and the disease in her lung could be operated on.
She’s been told she may need to have part or the whole of a lung removed – but then it’s hoped she’ll be cancer free.
Marion said: “I was so happy. And then I thought, ‘What have I done smoking again?’ My breathing wasn’t as good as it was.”
So she went back for another session of laser therapy – and hasn’t touched another cigarette.
Marion said: “The doctor told me that kind of tumour doesn’t always happen to people who smoke, so I don’t know if smoking caused it.
“But I was so angry with myself that I’d lit another cigarette. Having cut them out again, I feel great. If I was a smoker, they couldn’t put me through surgery because I couldn’t breathe properly when I was smoking. I would have died.
“Now I’m looking forward to a girls’ holiday in September.
“Quitting has already made a huge difference to my life. I look and feel better. Anne Penman has saved my life. It’s never too late to quit.” ● For more information, see www.annepenman.com or call 0141 637 5956.
If I was a smoker, they couldn’t put me through surgery. I would have died