Jenni Murray on why smoking should be banned outdoors

A year ago, if you’d asked me what I thought of the proposed Tobacco and Vapes Bill, I’d have insisted I was planning to leave this nanny state and go, probably to France, back to my old student hobby of puffing away on a Gitanes.

What sort of government would ban the longed-for pleasure of a fag in a pub garden after lunch, a smoke outside the theatre or cinema, or a desperate puff outside the office after a long workday? The gathering of smokers huddled in the street was always a delight. I’d long thought nicotine addicts were the most interesting conversationalists I’d ever met.

Then, a year ago, disaster struck. I broke a vertebrae. My sons insisted on a short stay in a care home.

My heart sank.

Long days where smoking was banned indoors; not fit enough to stagger outside for a quick one. No choice. Just quit.

I had nicotine patches and gum to ease the withdrawal, and I did it.

Funnily enough my cough got worse after I stopped. I was assured it was a common development. My poor lungs were trying to clear themselves of all the damage I’d done to them over a lot of years.

I smoked my first cigarette aged 14. I pinched the untipped Woodbine from my grandfather’s pack. I was sick and dizzy but determined to keep going.

I wanted to teach myself to do this smoking thing successfully. It was cool. All the trendiest, cleverest girls were doing it.

We were the bright but naughty crowd, hiding behind the bike sheds during breaks and keeping Polo in business to hide the smell from our mothers.

When the ban on smoking in enclosed public places was proposed in 2007, I surprised all my colleagues by voting in favour of it. I reckoned it would save me a lot of money if smoking at work was banned.

I was right and I soon discovered I was even able to write without a fag in my mouth. There was comfort knowing I could nip out and have one with the smoking gang if I craved it.

My word of advice to the young is don’t start, then you’ll never have to go through the agonising withdrawal symptoms of giving up.

There is no doubt nicotine is a fiendishly addictive drug and a year after my decision to finally give it up I still chew nicotine gum to ease the aching longing, but I keep telling myself my health is improving – as is my social life.

My sons no longer come into my house, throwing open the doors and windows, moaning about entering a gas chamber to see their mother.

They’re right. It was a gas chamber. I smoked in every room. I barely noticed the smell, after all, I’d lived with it all my life at home.

Some of the last words my father spoke to me as he lay dying from lung cancer in a hospice were, "Have you got a fag on you, love?"

When I told him he couldn’t smoke in a hospice, he sighed, "Well, it’s not going to do me any harm now, is it?"

That was true. The damage was done and he was one of the thousands costing the NHS a fortune because smoking had made him very poorly indeed.

It may be too late for me; I might have done the damage already, but I’m determined to give myself a chance.

That’s why I approve of the proposed ban on outside smoking. What could be worse than going to a pub for a drink, sitting in the garden and finding someone smoking at the next table. The temptation would be great. It’s better that those who insist on continuing to do themselves damage should be made to do it in private at home.

As for the proposed ban on young people buying cigarettes and not being able to start the disgusting habit, I’m all for it. What we thought was cool in our teenage years was anything but.

Bette Davis may have looked amazing in Now Voyager in the famous cigarette scene – Paul Henreid put two cigarettes in his mouth, lit both and handed one to her. It’s the sexiest scene in cinema. But it was not so sexy at the age of 80 when I interviewed Ms Davis. Still smoking, coughing, looking ill, she died only a month or so after I met her.

Smoking is dangerous. It’s ridiculously expensive and horribly addictive.

My word of advice to the young is don’t start, then you’ll never have to go through the agonising withdrawal symptoms of giving up.