Veteran football commentator Archie Macpherson has called the smoking ban is the “greatest piece of public legislation ever passed” after he was treated for cancer caused by passive smoking.
The 78-year-old had a kidney removed after a tumour was diagnosed that is commonly found in smokers, even though he has never had a cigarette in his life.
Macpherson said: “”I suddenly felt a venomous hatred of the smoker and then bumped into one at the hospital. An old woman with her goonie on and with her drip behind her.
“She dragged it down like a shopping trolley, smoking away, under a No Smoking sign. And I thought, ‘What a problem we face.’”
Macpherson believes his illness was caused by spending time in smoke-filled rooms and press boxes during his long commentating career.
He added: “There are people who are getting into cancer for the first time and must grapple with it in the confidence that much can be done for them.
“There is no doubt that the smoking ban is the greatest piece of public legislation that’s been passed anywhere in the world.
“The ban on smoking in public places must go on and we must find some other ways, even in this era of human rights legislation and whatever, of terrorising smokers.”
