A grieving son from Crawcrook is desperate to carry on his mum's life-saving legacy as an anti-smoking campaigner.
Maggie Bratton was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2001 at the age of just 45. When she was diagnosed, she stopped smoking and became a powerful voice urging others to ditch the habit and warning of the health dangers.
However, she died of an unrelated illness in April 2020 and now her son Davey has picked up the baton and wants to continue her campaigning and help save lives. Davey, 35, lives in Vancouver, Canada now, but is working with the Fresh campaign group to encourage people to put down their cigarettes for good.
Like his mum, Davey was a smoker for much of his life. But he stopped because of his mum's campaigning. He now features in the campaign group's 'Don't Be The 1' adverts - which highlight how half of smokers will die of smoking-related disease.
He told ChronicleLive what it was like to see his mum become devastatingly ill when he was just 12. "I was about 12 years old," he said. "I just remember coming home from school and she just sat me down at the kitchen table and told me she was going to have to have an operation.
"I couldn't take it in. When you hear the word cancer at the age it's scary. You don't understand the implications. That happened in 2001. My dad actually had a heart attack while my mum was in hospital. That was also due to smoking.
"I just remember the C word and fell apart. You fear the worst. She had to have an operation to remove a big chunk out the roof of her mouth and had an obturator fitted so she could eat and speak. She was amazing and brave during her fight with cancer but then to show the world what smoking had done to her."
Maggie, who died in April 2020 during the early months of the Covid pandemic, had only been diagnosed at a routine dental check-up. Davey added: "“Our lives were turned upside down."
Davey said his whole family had been smokers - and that the they had all felt the consequences of the habit. His mum went on to feature in adverts urging people to give up smoking, and Davey's following in her footsteps. He said his brother and brother's partner had quit inspired by Maggie, and in 2020 before she died he himself followed suit.
"Everyone in my family smoked, both my brother and his partner were heavy smokers too. After watching mam’s TV advert, they both quit smoking and I really wanted to quit too, he said. "But I didn’t at the time as I found it too difficult.
"I live in Canada so I hadn't seen the adverts. but to be honest I felt stupid. My mam was doing this incredible ad campaign and I was smoking. And I was spending so much on it and I thought: 'You know what, I'm going to quit.'
"I rang up my mum on Facetime and held up my vape - told her I had quit that day. And it turned out she died the next day. It was good to know that she knew. She was absolutely amazing. I just want to continue my mum's legacy, continue raising awareness and hopefully save more lives. It's possible to quit. I know it's hard, but it's doable. I know because I did it.
Heartbreakingly, later in 2020 Davey lost his brother Peeta, too. And now he wants to support others to quit in memory of them both. He added: "I am so proud of my mam. We had messages from all over the world from people saying they had quit smoking after seeing her film. Now that my mam’s passed away, I’m the only one left to continue her legacy. She’d be proud if just one more person quit from seeing the campaign.
"I’m so pleased that the last thing I told my mam was that I’d quit smoking and that she told me she was proud of me. I have a 10-year-old son – I don’t want him to smoke and I want to be around to see him grow up."
He said smoking was "life-ruining" and had a message for smokers: "I’m urging you to give quitting a go and find a way that works for you, whether it is a vape or nicotine replacement therapy. Don’t give up, keep trying and you will succeed."
Ailsa Rutter OBE, director of Fresh, said: "Maggie was an amazing woman and made a difference to so many people’s lives. It’s incredibly courageous of Davey to speak out about his wonderful mam to encourage other people to stop smoking before it’s too late."
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