AN ALLOA woman is calling for a bill to be voted in which would make it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born after January 1, 2009.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill has been proposed and is set to go before MPs on Tuesday, which, if approved, would see a fixed date restriction on cigarettes.

This means that any person born after January 1, 2009 would not be legally allowed to buy tobacco products, no matter how old they are.

Former smoker and grandmother Rosa MacPherson is fully backing the bill, hoping that the change will protect her grandchildren in the future.

Rosa started smoking when she was just nine years old, the same age as her granddaughter Kasia is now.

She said: “As a 12-year-old, the health implications of taking up smoking didn’t really cross my mind.

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“I remember at school being shocked at being shown a blackened lung during a talk, but my response to seeing that was to go outside for a cigarette.

“At the time, smoking was such a huge part of my identity. I was the one who had a pack of cigarettes in my school blazer pocket.”

Rosa kept smoking for most of her life, only stopping three years after the death of her husband to cancer.

Then aged 51, she had watched her father quit smoking after 60 years when a doctor told him his habit would kill him.

She continued: “It was January 10, 2007, a year after the ban on smoking indoors was introduced in Scotland, when I finally decided that I was ready to quit.

“I was with my sister and I burst into tears because I knew how hard staying stopped was going to be.

“But I also felt strong in having made a mental shift.”

Things got worse for Rosa when, in 2008, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, which her doctors links to her lifelong smoking.

“That was shocking to hear,” she went on. “I am just counting my lucky stars the disease was found at a very early stage.

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“This meant the surgery I had to treat the disease was successful and I’ve been cancer free ever since.”

Rosa joined Cancer Research UK as a volunteer campaigns ambassador around 13 years ago.

She has carried out work with MPs to discuss the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and is hopeful that future generations can be protected from the harm smoking does.

Rosa added: “The fact that I couldn’t give up smoking after my husband was diagnosed with late stage lymphoma and died three months later shows you what a powerful drug tobacco is.

“I’m amazed it’s taken this long to recognise that tobacco is a legal killer.

“For all these years, tobacco companies have been grooming the nation’s children to smoke, to become addicts and, as a society, we’ve been condoning this.

“It’s time to do something about it. If these laws come into force, society will forever be changed for the better.”