REFERENCE Clare Bell's letter in response to Michelle Tompkins' article about smoking during pregnancy, I have to say that I think she is missing the bigger picture here.

My mum admitted that she smoked during her pregnancies and I consider myself and my brother to have been well brought up and cared for etc. She did lose her third baby however, although I have no idea if this had any connection with smoking.

Sadly my mum died last year, aged 76, from chronic smoking-related diseases, having been a real live-wire for most of her life.

She suffered very much in her latter years, in and out of hospital and respite care and ending up on 24-hour oxygen.

She felt she had become a burden to me, which she certainly never was, although very much a worry. There is no comparison between the health enjoyed by my aunt (her older sister), a life-long non-smoker like myself, and her.

She always argued that she had to die of something, but my reply was it isn't the dying bit, it's the quality of life beforehand. I don't know what the statistics are, but people often become ill/or die at a much younger age of smoking-related diseases, tragically depriving their families.

I don't mean to be dismal, but I do hope that Clare Bell and other mums will think about what I have said.

T BRETT

Old Town

Swindon