SMOKER Ruth Wood feels like her life has been "wiped out" at the age of 63 – after smoking up to 80 cigarettes a day.

Mrs Wood has emphysema and angina, takes oxygen twice a day, can only walk a few steps and is in bed from 6pm, fighting for breath.

Mrs Wood, pictured right, first started smoking at the age of nine.

Now the former prison officer is backing The Sentinel's campaign for 4,010 smokers to kick their habit over the next 12 months.

Mrs Wood, of Catharine Road, Chell Heath, said: "If I could give anyone any advice, it would be don't smoke – I'm on oxygen twice a day because of it.

"If they can give up cigarettes, I'd say quit as soon as possible. I'm only 63, but it's wiped my life out.

"I am on oxygen for 30 minutes in the morning when I wake up, and my husband has to do virtually everything for me.

"I get tired quite quickly and drop off quite a lot. Usually I'm in bed by 6pm, and spend my evenings sat on the end of the bed trying to breathe. It's no life and it is all because of the fags."

Mrs Wood smoked between 60 and 80 cigarettes a day during her time as a prison officer, and cut down to 20-a-day when she retired.

She said: "I was very naughty. But in my day, everyone smoked.

"I was brought up in a pub and left on my own a lot. I would see all the grown-ups smoking and wanted to copy what they did.

"I enjoyed it and everyone did it. There were no warnings about the sort of damage you were doing to yourself back then.

"It was not too expensive and it was a social thing.

"Then when my health started deteriorating, I thought I might as well keep smoking because I couldn't get any worse, but of course I did.

"I started having breathing problems six years ago, then it got bad three years ago, and in the last 12 months it has got really bad very quickly."

Despite her health problems, Mrs Wood has never managed to completely quit and still has the occasional fag.

She said: "Unfortunately, the NHS gave me patches, but I didn't get the moral support.

"I fell off the wagon when I found out an old friend was going blind. It was one of those times when you reach for a fag.

"I love my fag, as much as it's disgusting.

"I still fall off the wagon every now and then. But it starts me coughing.

"In August we went away and I had a bad coughing fit. It felt like my ribs had been ripped out. I'm still not right now, sometimes I will start coughing and will get the most unbearable pain."