A former hospital cook who gave up smoking after nearly 40 years is urging people to get their lungs tested as part of national No Smoking Day.

Stephen Pugh, who used to get through up to 30 cigarettes a day after taking his first drag at the age of just 11, is hoping to encourage smokers to learn from his experience.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) has teamed up with Birmingham's Stop Smoking Service for this year’s No Smoking Day on 14 March.

The reformed smoker, who used to work for UHB as a cook at Selly Oak Hospital, is now spreading the no-smoking message in his new role as a community engagement worker for the Stop Smoking Service.

And Stephen, 56, will return to UHB when he and Stop Smoking colleague Helen Robertson will be at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) to offer practical advice on how to give up smoking.

They will also be offering people the chance to "test your chest" with carbon reading devices which measure the levels of carbon monoxide in your lungs.

Stephen, who lives in Rubery, recalled: “I was 11 years old when I started smoking. I was just moving from junior to senior school and everybody had cigarettes. I was told that when I got to secondary school you had to smoke or you got hammered.

“We used to buy one cigarette and three matches for three old pence from a newsagent on our way to school. The woman in the shop would get them out from under the counter. I used to buy two and have one in the morning and one in the afternoon.”

That started Stephen, who joined the kitchen staff at Selly Oak Hospital in April 1974, on a habit that was to last 36 years, right up until he was 47.

“I began having heart palpitations which turned out to be due to the narrowing of an artery. My doctor told me that the greatest thing I could do was to stop smoking.

“My son was then aged 8 and my daughter 11 and I didn’t want them to take the habit up themselves or grow up without a dad. I wanted to see them have kids of their own.”

Stephen first became involved with the Stop Smoking Service when he enrolled on a three-week course to help him give up cigarettes. “I thought, after 36 years, I was never going to do it and I would end up six feet under. But, by the third week, everyone had quit.”

He was later asked to speak to new groups of smokers about how he had managed to give up, and that led to him working for Stop Smoking on a voluntary basis during his days off from the hospital kitchens.

Eventually, when a full-time job became available 2 years ago, he made the decision to leave UHB in January 2010. His role now takes him to health centres, colleges and GP surgeries to spread the stop smoking message.

UHB holds regular stop smoking sessions for those people who want help to kick the habit. They are held in the Education Centre at QEHB every Wednesday from 12:00 – 13:30.

For further information about the Stop Smoking Service, including a list of community clinics in your area, call the helpline free on 0800 052 5855.