BOLTON'S top lung cancer doctor is urging smokers to stub it out after the number of people being diagnosed with lung cancer increased in 2005.
Last year, 163 people were told they had the disease, which is nearly always terminal, after being diagnosed at the Royal Bolton Hospital.
In 2004, this figure was 157 - and Dr Kevin Jones, consultant chest physician at the Royal Bolton Hospital, believes the increase is due to high rates of smoking in the borough.
He said that if people give up smoking while they are still young, they drastically reduce the chances of developing lung cancer by the time they are 70, which is the most common age to develop the disease.
"The most important thing is for people to give up as lung cancer isn't the only disease associated with smoking. There is chronic bronchitis, emphysema and the biggest killer, heart disease," he said.
Up to 92 per cent of people diagnosed with lung cancer at the Royal Bolton Hospital have developed the killer disease because of smoking.
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