“Nobody told me until I became addicted”

VERA TIGHE started smoking when she was 12 years of age because all the film stars did it.

Her first cigarette made her sick but that did not stop her having a second straight after.

"I never drank alcohol or took drugs because I knew they were bad. Nobody told us that smoking was dangerous," said the 61-year-old mother of four grown-up children from Donaghmede, Dublin.