SMOKERS in the North-East and North Yorkshire are being targeted in the first region-wide anti-smoking campaign that includes advertising on television and online, by local tobacco control alliances.

Quit16 will run throughout February in a drive to lower the 20 per cent of adults who smoker in the region, one of the highest rates in the country.

Anti-smoking group Ash has estimated smoking costs society £145.5 million a year in North Yorkshire alone.

The campaign will highlight the 16 cancers associated with smoking, including cancers of the mouth, nasal cavities, pharynx and larynx, stomach, kidney, bowel, liver, pancreas, ureter, oesophagus, cervix, bladder and ovaries as well as myeloid leukaemia.

One of those fronting the drive will be Dave McKenna, from Staithes, near Whitby, who was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue, when his GP found a large lump during a check-up.

He smoked 2oz of pipe tobacco a week before his diagnosis, but quit in 2008 overnight.

The former teacher, 66, underwent 28 gruelling sessions of radiotherapy and five sessions of chemotherapy.

Mr McKenna also had a radical neck dissection; a long and complicated neck procedure which involved cutting from the back of his ear, down his neck and across his chest looking for cancerous cells.

The campaign follows one in Australia in 2014, which led to 74 per cent of smokers who saw it seriously considering quitting and 20 per cent discussing quitting with a health professional as a result.

Councillor David Chance, public health boss in North Yorkshire, where 61 people a month discover they have cancer caused by smoking, said: “The films and message are brutally honest: there are 16 cancers caused by smoking.

"Some will kill you quickly, others more slowly and it’s you and your family that have to live through it."