A GREAT grandfather with a devastating lung disease does not need to tell young people not to smoke – they only have to look at him to see the damage it has done.

Eiron Roberts gave up smoking 17 years ago when he suffered four heart attacks in one terrifying and agonising weekend, but even when he did quit he was too late to slow the creeping ravages of emphysema.

The condition was only diagnosed in 2005, more than a decade after he gave up cigarettes for good – which shows the irreversible long-term damage smoking does, even after ex-smokers have turned their lives around.

He suffers breathlessness that makes the everyday tasks you and I take for granted exhausting and difficult.

But he still sees himself as one of the lucky ones. Mr Roberts has lost friends to the same condition and he has one friend who spends 16 hours a day on a machine that feeds him oxygen.

The 71-year-old, of Masefield Close, off Blanquettes Avenue, Worcester, now tells anyone who will listen to give up the nasty habit or, better still, not to light up in the first place.

His pleas have not fallen on deaf ears, certainly not in his own family where none of his three children or three grandchildren smoke.

Mr Roberts, who grew up in the village of Onllwyn in Wales, still remembers the excruciating pain he felt when he suffered his heart attacks, which he was told by a consultant at Worcestershire Royal Hospital was as a direct result of smoking.

It was more intense than any other pain he had ever felt, even the accident down a mine which cost him the sight in his right eye when he worked for the coal board. During his heart attack he was unable to crawl up the stairs or cry out for help to Anne, his wife of 50 years.

He said: “It was without a doubt the most pain I have ever experienced. The pain did not ease or go away. The journey to the hospital seemed to take an eternity. The consultant said working for the coal board in all that dust may have been a contributory factor, but he was putting down most of it to smoking.

“Most of the people I see who have what I have are ex-smokers. I think it was a very good idea to bring in the smoking ban in public places. I wish they had realised it when I was growing up and maybe I would have given up smoking and I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you now.”

Mr Roberts, who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day after the age of 16, said: “My message to anyone thinking of taking up smoking is ‘for goodness sake don’t!’ I don’t usually have to tell people not to smoke – seeing me is enough. I am one of the fortunate ones, I am not as ill as some of them. I know two friends, both heavy smokers, who have died because of emphysema and a stroke because of smoking. I have a small garden the size of a postage stamp but it takes me a good hour to do it. It should take 20 minutes.

“It took four heart attacks in one weekend to make me give up smoking. It is one of the best decisions I have ever made. My father worked and died of heart disease, which has been linked to smoking. My father worked in the mines and the first thing many miners did when they came from underground was have a fag.”

Mr Roberts is no longer complacent about his health. He walks from the Worcester Woods Countryside Centre together with others who have forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and attends “maintenance classes” at Warndon Community Centre and Kidderminster Hospital, where he does step-ups and uses weights to improve his fitness.

He is one of many who celebrated the 10th anniversary this week of the Malvern and Worcester branch of Breathe Easy based at Warndon Community Centre, Shap Drive.

The organisation, chaired by Geoff Cumbley, offers support and friendly advice to people with chronic lung problems, including COPD, an umbrella term for people with chronic bronchitis, emphysema or both that restrict the airflow to the lungs, usually because of smoking.

Nurse Dr Elaine Bevan-Smith, who is part of the COPD team at NHS Worcestershire, praised the support and contribution of Breathe Easy to their work.

She said: “Over the years they have bought us so much equipment. They have also been supportive, helping to find people to take part in research. The staff of the COPD team want to say thank you to them.”

The COPD helps to improve quality of life for people by running a walking group at the countryside centre and giving people exercises they can do at home to help.

Dr Bevan-Smith said: “We have helped a lot of patients who have a very poor quality of life. A lot of patients with COPD are very frightened because they are so breathless. With our support and that of Breathe Easy, they are no longer frightened to do the things that make them breathless.”

She also said people with COPD had benefited from a specialist clinic in Warndon, led by Dr Andrew Woolley. But there is only so much the medical experts can do. Exercise is the second best medicine for people with COPD. The best medicine is to give up smoking or, even better, never to start in the first place.

For more information on quitting smoking, call the NHS Free Smoking Helpline on 0800 0224332.

It is open seven days a week from 7am to 11pm or log on to nhs.uk/smokefree