Give smoking habit the yellow card! (From Barry And District News)

Give smoking habit the yellow card!

BARRY football legend Derek Tapscott - The'Thierry Henry' of the 1950s - has called on today's kids to cut cigarettes out of their life.

Derek, scorer of 68 goals in 132 games for Arsenal, now suffers from emphysema, a severe smoking-related disease.

Having smoked for 49 years, Derek describes taking up the habit as the biggest regret of his life.

"I started in the Army when I was 18. It was the done thing at the time - we didn't know of the severe dangers of smoking. My advice to kids these days is just PACK IT IN!"

Derek's comments come as a stark warning on World COPD Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness of a number of this smoking-related conditions. This illness leaves him struggling for breath and unable to enjoy his retirement to the full.

COPD - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - is an umbrella term, which covers many well-known smoking-related lung diseases. They include chronic bronchitis, emphysema, chronic obstructive airways disease, chronic airways disease and chronic airflow limitation. It kills 30,000 people a year in UK.

A regular chesty cough - a symptom ignored by most smokers can be one of the four early warning signs of COPD. Other symptoms include breathlessness on mild exertion, frequent coughs and colds in winter, and persistent production of phlegm.

Dr David Bellamy, a GP in Bournemouth, said: "COPD is the third largest cause of respiratory death worldwide, and is expected to be the third most common cause of overall death worldwide by 2020.