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** 15 March 2024
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** UK
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** Plymouth shop investigated after police cadet vape op (#3)
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** Opinion: Gambling should carry a public health warning like cigarettes to prevent suicides (#1)
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** Macmillan Cancer Support to axe 150 jobs amid soaring inflation (#6)
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** Link of the week
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** No Smoking Day advert (#4)
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** UK
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** Plymouth shop investigated after police cadet vape op

Police cadets in Plymouth have assisted in a local operation aimed at tackling vape sales to underage people.

The Trading Standards operation involved cadets - under the age of 18 - dressed in plain clothes, entering a number of shops in Plymouth to try and buy a vape.

Police said six shops were visited, with just one failing to ask for ID.

The shop in question is being investigated by Trading Standards, police said.

Vapes are battery operated devices that are used to simulate smoking and can contain nicotine.

The legal age to purchase a vape in the UK is 18 years old.

The Child Centred Policing team said: "We are pleased our police cadets were able to support with this operation.

"Vapes and e-cigarettes are becoming very popular, and it is important that underage people cannot illegally purchase these until they reach the age of 18."

Source: BBC, 15 March 2024
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** Opinion: Gambling should carry a public health warning like cigarettes to prevent suicides

Writing in the Big Issue, Yvette Greenway-Mansfield, CEO of SOS Silence of Suicide, discusses the harms of gambling and their recommendations to help mitigate these harms.

Greenway-Mansfield states there have been 496 deaths by suicide attributed to gambling in 2023 and adds that betting companies made around £14.2 billion in 2020.

The author writes that urgent “public awareness, prevention and intervention” is required because of the grave and potentially deadly effect that gambling can have on an addicted individual’s mental health, as well as their loved ones.

Greenway-Mansfield writes of the new campaign they have launched, called #ThinkItOver. They make four recommendations: legislations to end advertising and betting promotion, ensure gambling carries a public-health warning, similar to cigarettes, notices with mental health warnings placed in areas which accept bets (including online betting platforms), and Support of their Think It Over concept, whereby anyone attempting to place a bet, whatever platform they choose, is subject to a minimum 10-minute cooling off period to re-think their plans and hopefully walk away.

SOS Silence of Suicide highlight the “crippling impact of gambling addiction” and support them everyday through their helpline, social media or people sharing their stories first hand. This is why they have called for urgent gambling reform. They urge people to sign their petition to demonstrate the public support for the reforms they are suggesting.

Greenway-Mansfield finishes by stating that the government and Gambling Commission must be held accountable for the unfolding crisis surrounding gambling, mental health and suicide.

Source: The Big Issue, 14 March 2024

See also: SOS Silence of Suicide petition ([link removed])
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** Macmillan Cancer Support to axe 150 jobs amid soaring inflation

Macmillan Cancer Support, one of Britain’s biggest and best known charities, is planning to axe 150 jobs – one in 14 of its workforce – saying that it is getting harder to raise money to cover rising demand for its help due to increasing numbers of people living with cancer.

The charity, whose services play a vital role in local NHS provision, spends £250m a year funding about 11,000 specialist cancer nurses and care workers and providing financial, practical and emotional support and advice to the public, including thousands of £200 grants to patients needing help with energy and travel costs.

But its heavy reliance on charity fundraising has been exposed by soaring inflation and a surging demand for advice and support from rising numbers of people needing help to cope with the financial and psychological consequences of cancer diagnoses and long waits for NHS treatment.

The move has shocked the voluntary sector because the biggest charities have been largely resilient to the cost of living crisis, unlike smaller organisations, which are often at the mercy of donor fatigue and council funding cuts. “It’s a surprise. Most big charities are hiring rather than shedding jobs,” one analyst said.

Of Macmillan’s income, 97% comes via fundraising and legacies. It raised £204m this way in 2022, down £6m year-on-year, and lower than pre-Covid levels. Fundraising is understood to have flatlined over the past year.

Macmillan Cancer Support has topped YouGov’s annual charity rankings – that measure which charities the public would be most likely to donate to – for 11 years in a row, ahead of other household names such as Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation.

Source: The Guardian, 15 March 2024
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** Link of the week
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** No Smoking Day advert

For No Smoking Day this week, the government released an advert promoting their campaign to encourage smokers to quit. Originally developed by Fresh in the North East, the video features former smoker and cancer survivor Sue Mountain who discusses her experience of being diagnosed with smoking-related cancer and urges smokers to quit before it is too late.

See also: ASH - Every day 350 young adults aged 18-25 start smoking regularly ([link removed]) | DHSC - Urgent call to smokers to make a quit attempt for No Smoking Day ([link removed])
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.

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