How quitting smoking saved a family

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Annette Bolesworth, 44, had to go for a weekly carbon monoxide blood test at her local pharmacy as part of her stop smoking programme.

But staff were stunned when they got a reading which was the equivalent of someone chain-smoking 100 cigarettes.

Ms Bolesworth eventually discovered that her car was the culprit, and that a faulty pipe was poisoning her and her family.

The mother-of-two said: "We were all being poisoned with it and if I had been going on a long journey I would probably have fallen asleep at the wheel. It cost £210 to get the car fixed, but £210 against our lives is nothing. I'm relieved because it was dangerous to us all.

"I'm very grateful to the pharmacy. They helped me stop smoking but they saved my life as well."

The care home worker, who lives in Rutherglen, near Glasgow, decided to give up her 20-a-day habit around three months ago for health reasons.

She signed up to the 12-week Pharmacy Smokefree Services programme at her local pharmacy, which is backed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The project provides nicotine patches to the smoker, who comes for a weekly visit and blood test to monitor their carbon monoxide levels.

Ms Bolesworth's levels were initially coming down, but seven weeks into the programme staff recorded the high reading of 49 parts per million in her blood - far above the 0-8 average for a non-smoker.