# Cancer survivor and cancer researcher start e-cigarette shop in Burton



## Alex (31/5/16)

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*Cancer survivor and cancer researcher start e-cigarette shop in Burton*


By Burton Mail | Posted: May 31, 2016

By Kit Sandeman






ECIG Emporium have opened a new shop onStation Street, Burton


 Comments (1) 
TWO men who gave up smoking against the odds have told how e-cigarettes saved their lives.

Just a few years ago, Graham Edkins was suffering from throat cancer and Dr Robert Lees was a respected cancer researcher – but still neither of them could kick the habit.

Both were smoking 30 a day, in between giving lectures about cancer research or receiving cancer treatment.

Within days of picking up e-cigarettes, neither has smoked a cigarette since.






Now, to help spread the word about 'vaping', they have set up an e-cigarette shop in Burton, and have already helped hundreds of people make the same life-changing decision to quit – with the help of Ben the dog. They operate from a shop which used to be a tobacconist in High Street, Burton.

Unlike regular smoking, vaping does not use tobacco, meaning many of the harmful carcinogens are absent.

Instead, a nicotine solution is inhaled, helping to provide a replacement to cigarettes.

Even when Graham, 57, was lying in a terminal ward, embarrassed that the oncologist could smell the cigarette smoke on his clothes, he watched smokers inhaling cigarettes through their tracheas and could still not kick the habit.

It was at this point, 13 years ago, that he decided to give electronic cigarettes a try. And he has not touched a cigarette since.






Amazed at the possibilities of e-cigarettes, he went to work in a vaping shop, and that was where he met Robert, 54.

Despite working to try to find a cure for cancer, Dr Lees was a chain smoker.

Like Graham, he had smoked 30 a day, and was at first sceptical of using e-cigarettes, but was willing to give them a try. Two days later, he had smoked his last cigarette.

After they met in the shop, the pair became friends, and a year ago, took the bold decision to open up their own store, the ECIG Emporium.






Graham said: "It sounds stupid to say that I smoked when I had throat cancer, but of the people who have it, about 40 per cent of them are still smokers. That just illustrates how difficult it is to quit – it's as addictive as heroin. E-cigarettes were just coming on the market then, in 2003, but when I got an e-cigarette that was it."

A recent report by the Royal College of Physicians found they were 95 per cent better for you than smoking, and they should be promoted in the interest of public health.

The financial savings of switching to e-cigarettes can also be vast. With 20 cigarettes now costing almost £10, having a 30-a-day habit now costs £5,000 a year.

Robert said: "We had one family all stop together – four kids, all on a packet a day. Dad was on 30 a day and so was mum.

"They did the usual putting the money they saved in a tin, but within a week they said this isn't good enough, we need a bank account. Within a few weeks they had booked a holiday. They were spending more on cigarettes than they were on the mortgage."


Read more: http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/Cancer-...tory-29337497-detail/story.html#ixzz4AFtrGS4X 
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Reactions: Like 2 | Winner 6


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## Spydro (1/6/16)

As a cancer survivor (so far), anything that promotes the positives of preventing tobacco related cancers by getting anyone/everyone off the tobacco is a huge win for mankind as a whole.

Mine are not from smoking tobacco for over 50 years, I don't have any tobacco related cancers. My five are from chemical exposures during my Vietnam era military service from the mid 60's that finally caught up with me in 2008. An emergency surgery then saved my life from one of them, but at the price of other issues/handicaps I will live with the rest of my life. Another one I can not survive and it will eventually do it's deed. I have had no chemo treatments or drugs from the start. But I have forced three others into recession by a raw food diet alone I developed for the Diabetes II that came later (the diet reversed it in four months, it has never came back)... and the cancer that will get me eventually the diet has also slowed it down. My doctor has promoted my diet for years now for D-II patients... my diet (and ecigs if they smoke) to his other cancer patients for about 3 years.

Reactions: Like 1 | Winner 6


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## Neal (1/6/16)

Spydro said:


> As a cancer survivor (so far), anything that promotes the positives of preventing tobacco related cancers by getting anyone/everyone off the tobacco is a huge win for mankind as a whole.
> 
> Mine are not from smoking tobacco for over 50 years, I don't have any tobacco related cancers. My five are from chemical exposures during my Vietnam era military service from the mid 60's that finally caught up with me in 2008. An emergency surgery then saved my life from one of them, but at the price of other issues/handicaps I will live with the rest of my life. Another one I can not survive and it will eventually do it's deed. I have had no chemo treatments or drugs from the start. But I have forced three others into recession by a raw food diet alone I developed for the Diabetes II that came later (the diet reversed it in four months, it has never came back)... and the cancer that will get me eventually the diet has also slowed it down. My doctor has promoted my diet for years now for D-II patients... my diet (and ecigs if they smoke) to his other cancer patients for about 3 years.



You Sir have my utmost respect. That was perhaps the most powerful post I have ever read on this forum.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## The_Ice (1/6/16)

Spydro said:


> As a cancer survivor (so far), anything that promotes the positives of preventing tobacco related cancers by getting anyone/everyone off the tobacco is a huge win for mankind as a whole.
> 
> Mine are not from smoking tobacco for over 50 years, I don't have any tobacco related cancers. My five are from chemical exposures during my Vietnam era military service from the mid 60's that finally caught up with me in 2008. An emergency surgery then saved my life from one of them, but at the price of other issues/handicaps I will live with the rest of my life. Another one I can not survive and it will eventually do it's deed. I have had no chemo treatments or drugs from the start. But I have forced three others into recession by a raw food diet alone I developed for the Diabetes II that came later (the diet reversed it in four months, it has never came back)... and the cancer that will get me eventually the diet has also slowed it down. My doctor has promoted my diet for years now for D-II patients... my diet (and ecigs if they smoke) to his other cancer patients for about 3 years.


Wow man, what a shame that we live in a time when ignorant politicians are jumping on the bandwagon to "BAN THIS DANGEROUS E-CIGARETTE FAD" when its part of such an effective treatment.

All the best to you @Spydro and thank you for sharing


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