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
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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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