I SIMPLY couldn't let Christine Peters’ recently published plea for smokers to be left in peace to enjoy their pleasure, to go unanswered.

Has she considered the right of non-smokers to be left in peace to enjoy breathing clean air?

Smokers choose to fill their lungs with poison, non-smokers often don't get that choice.

When walking up Richmond Hill, one usually has to gasp a lung full of air before sprinting through the cloud of smoke from office workers gasping on their cigarettes outside Richmond House.

In the recent warm weather, any desire to eat or drink al fresco is a carefully planned operation, checking neighbouring tables are clear of signs of smoking, only to have your meal ruined when someone reaches into their bag and proceeds to light up and allow their smoke to billow everywhere.

Unfortunately, not all smokers are so magnanimous in declining help from the NHS when the consequences of their habit inevitably catch up with them. Many cancer treatments, particularly the new immunotherapies, cost many thousands of pounds per cycle. The generous 'contribution' smokers make from the taxes they pay simply do not go far enough to cover these costs.

MRS D K DOWSETT, Capstone Road, Bournemouth