Anti-smoking TV advert has destroyed my life

A MOTHER who stars in the Government's new anti-smoking campaign has revealed how the TV ads wrecked her life.

Cancer sufferer Tracey Cotton, 35, says the hard- hitting ads, which feature the slogan "Dying For A Fag", made her feel like a freak.

Within a few days of the ads being screened mother-of-two Tracey was taunted by children and picked on by locals who believed she was being paid a fortune to appear in them.

"At the local shop I heard two kids saying, 'There's that cancer woman, that's the woman with cancer on the telly'," said Tracey.

It was made more difficult when she had to wear a scarf to hide her bald head after radiotherapy.

"They didn't understand, but I felt like a freak. Then people came up to my husband Alex in the pub and told him we must be raking it in - but we haven't got any money and we don't expect any."

The gossip has become so bad she rarely leaves her Nottingham home and now wants her family to move.

The final crunch came after Tracey appeared on the BBC's Watchdog Healthcheck programme.

"My teenage daughter Jodi couldn't stand it, and after the programme I decided I wanted my ad taken off TV," said Tracey.

"I understood the advert was going to be hard hitting but it got to the stage where I couldn't bear to see it again."

Tracey, who is one of three people who feature in the anti- smoking ads, felt appearing in the ads would help other sufferers, but Central TV has now agreed to drop her ad, and the BBC has apologised.

She has had a lung and brain tumour removed, and lost a baby because of cancer.

Tracey started smoking as a 13- year-old. By the time she had left school she was on 60-a-day, and only eased up after meeting husband Alex seven years ago.

She and Alex, who each had a child from previous relationships, had one baby together - daughter Robi, now 20 months - and decided to try for a second straight away.

Tracey became pregnant, but in the summer of 1996 she was diagnosed as having lung cancer.

Surgeons operated to remove the tumour but Tracey needed radiotherapy treatment.

"Radiotherapy meant I couldn't keep the baby," she said. "I had to have a termination - it was the worst decision I've ever had to make."

But there was further trauma for Tracey. A brain tumour developed and she needed more surgery and more radiotherapy.

She fought her way back to health with the help of staff at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, and to repay their efforts she agreed to appear in the anti-smoking ads.

The TV campaign has had a huge impact and 5,000 people a day are calling the advice hotline.

"I don't want to rubbish the campaign," said Tracey. "But I only did the advert to repay the hospital, the doctors and staff who helped me to live."

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