Now thankfully he has repented and is fully aware of the health damage that cigarettes can cause.

He is right to target youngsters because it is at this age that people can become hooked on the evil weed, and young smokers then graduate to become adult smokers who provide a healthy income for the tobacco companies.

For a 20-a-day smoker who starts at age 12 and goes on until 60, this will represent a staggering £45,000 at today's prices. OK it wouldn't buy a royal yacht, but it would make a significant dent in the mortgage.

In fact nicotine, which is found in cigarettes, is one of the most addictive substances known.

Smokers will know that they crave a cigarette (the nicotine in fact) because they feel bad without it, but the tobacco smoke takes these symptoms away.

Smoking is always portrayed as sexy, exciting, dynamic, but in fact it leads to misery, suffering, and poor health.

Smoking is directly linked to lung cancer, heart disease, and chest diseases like bronchitis, but there are many other diseases which have been shown to be more prevalent in smokers.

Coughing up blood

Once you start, it's tough to stop

The first patient I saw in hospital as a medical student was coughing up blood and gasping for breath.

Unfortunately, he was going to die from lung cancer, but he said to me: "If only I'd known cigarettes would do this to me I would never have started". I will never, ever forget that.

It is a cruel fact that most smoking diseases will hit someone many years after they start, and by then it will be too late for them to do anything about it.

It is never too late to give up, but the sooner you do the better. It takes about 10 years from when you stop for your risk of disease to fall to that of a non-smoker, but the longer you have smoked, the longer it takes.

Basically you have to want to give up. Any amount of hypnosis, pins in your ears, or acupuncture will not work if you really don't want to.

So choose your moment carefully - not when your national side are contesting the semis of the World Cup, or when aunt Augusta is visiting for six weeks.

The only sure way is to stop once, throw the packet away, and vow never to smoke again.

If you can't do that, then various aids which reduce the additive nicotine doses such as patches, chewing gum, or inhalers can help to break the cigarette habit.

But beware, you still have to wean yourself off these to break the nicotine addiction. It has been shown that a professionally supervised programme gives better results, so contact your local health clinic to see what programmes they offer for smoking cessation.

If all else fails I've got one last idea - don't inhale!