The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Smoking and Health yesterday celebrated the 40th anniversary of ASH with a function at the House of Commons.
Here are some of the 'highlights':
Guests welcomed by Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams, chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health.
Williams, Labour MP Kevin Barron (former chairman of the Health Select Committee), and public health minister Anne Milton presented with awards by Cancer Research.
Milton said it was a pleasure to celebrate ASH’s "birthday party". She then presented Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, with the World No Tobacco Day Award from the World Health Organisation.
Accepting the award, Debs thanked those who funded ASH.
Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, which founded ASH in 1971, wished a "very happy birthday to our baby, now our grown up child" and called for a campaign to "get rid of cigarettes eventually".
Prof John Moxam, chairman of ASH, compared it to his own birthday, and spoke of an "ASH family across the world".
Sir Richard, he said, was was "the father of ASH" and the support of the Royal College of Physicians has been "absolutely wonderful".
He also paid tribute to Kevin Barron who he described as a "warrior for the cause", adding, "ASH just thinks you’re magic".
Ugh!!
Ms Milton, he said, was "tremendous", and had "won over the hearts of everyone involved".
I think I'm going to be sick ....