I Blame Passive Smoking: Jackie Butler is One of 4000 Non-Smokers Diagnosed With Lung Cancer Each Year

By JENNIFER CUNNINGHAM

JACKIE Butler is a grandmother of six from West Lothian who was out hillwalking with friends at every opportunity, until October. It was then, a week after her 66th birthday, that she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

"It came as a shock. I did not have any symptoms I could associate with lung cancer, " she says. "I had a pain in my shoulder. The doctor suspected gallstones, but a scan revealed no gallstones but fluid on my lungs."

Reeling off the reasons why she should never have suffered from this disease she thought only smokers got, she says: "I thought I’d done everything right. I worked until I was 65, running my own cleaning business; I went to the gym two or three times a week; and hillwalked every weekend. I’ve never smoked in my life and none of my immediate family smoked.

"I can’t think of anything other than passive smoking that could have caused this. You can’t get away from cigarettes. If you go to a restaurant, someone will smoke next to you and if you go out for a drink, you are surrounded by smokers. I suppose I’d be passively smoking other people’s cigarettes on social occasions maybe two or three times a week."

By the time Jackie was diagnosed, the tumour was inoperable. She was given chemotherapy, but had to stop because it was affecting her kidneys. Now she is taking part in a clinical trial for a new drug (cetuximab) which stops the tumour growing further. Fortunately, her last scan revealed it’s also shrinking her tumour.

Lung cancer has limited her life. "I can’t go to the gym and I can only go walking with friends if they are doing a flat walk, " says Jackie, who knows that she was lucky her cancer was detected. She admits: "I nearly didn’t go for the scan, because the pain had gone by the time the appointment came up. Fortunately, my friend convinced me I should go."

The ban on smoking in public places will extend Jackie’s social horizons. "I am delighted, " she says. "I went to lunch last week and a woman immediately lit up a cigarette beside us. We had to be moved."

She hopes it will also bring a new understanding. "People think it is self-inflicted. I was one of them. It is important for people to understand that it does not just affect smokers."

About 4000 people a year in the UK are diagnosed with lung cancer which is not caused by smoking. They are 10-per cent of the 38,000 diagnosed with the disease every year. Dr David Dunlop, consultant medical oncologist at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, confirms the majority of cases of lung cancer in lifelong non-smokers are from passive smoking. He says the smoking ban will have immediate benefits in addition to the long-term reduction in lung cancer from passive smoking. "The most immediate effect will be the reduction in the treatment in hospital of diseases including asthma and bronchitis. Every year, 17,000 under-fives are admitted because of the effects of passive smoking. It will also lead to a reduction in cardiac deaths and heart attacks."

There is no doubt the health of Scotland will improve in the short to medium term. "Smoking bans do have an effect. Cigarette sales have gone down by 13-per cent in New York and 16-per cent in Ireland since the ban. Glasgow is an extraordinary case in point. We commonly treat women in their forties for lung cancer." He also has a message for young women. "Smoking among young women is increasing, but they don’t realise that if they give up, they return to normal more quickly than men. Women have more to gain by giving up.

"Lung cancer is no longer a disease of elderly, male, lower- class smokers. It is a disease of young women who have a contribution to make to the economy and to their families. In Glasgow, we think we’re now seeing these young women with lung cancer because they have been affected by passive smoking since before they were born, because their mothers smoked while they were pregnant."

No-one can afford to be complacent. Peter Rainey is one of the 10- per cent of people who get lung cancer which is not caused by smoking. A rare form of tumour on his lung and the airways leading from his windpipe resulted in him having one lung and part of an airway removed. "I started to have difficulty getting breath. It took months of investigations until I was diagnosed with lung cancer. Since I was a healthy 47-year-old with a good diet, it came as a severe shock."

For the next year, his life was on hold. "I was either preparing for or recovering from one of the operations, " he says. Now, he is concentrating on getting fit enough to return to work. One of the brighter spots is the arrival of the ban on smoking in public places. "I hope it is a catalyst for people to stop smoking, " he says.

The ban is important for Scotland, says Dr Jesme Baird, medical director of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Dr Baird says: "It’s not just about lung cancer, it’s about heart disease, bronchitis and that sick man of Europe syndrome. The five-year survival rates for lung cancer is seven out of 100. This is a serious disease and we can prevent it. That is desperately important."

The most common cancer

* Lung cancer claims more than 38,000 lives in the UK every year – more than leukaemia, breast and prostate cancer combined.

* Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world.

* One in 10 cases are among people who have never smoked.

* The highest rates of smoking are in the 20 to 24 age group, with 37-per cent of men and 38-per cent of women this age recorded as smokers.

* Smoking tobacco is the greatest avoidable risk factor for cancer. It causes more than one in four deaths from cancer, and has killed around six million people in the past 50 years.

* More than 120,000 people die each year from smoking-related diseases.

* Tobacco consumption is recognised as the UK’s single greatest cause of preventable illness and early death.

* Lung cancer receives only 4-per cent of the national cancer research budget.