The aim of World No Tobacco Day is to encourage 24 hours of abstinence from tobacco use internationally. This day also draws attention to the detrimental health effects and widespread damage caused by the consumption of tobacco, which currently plays a role in more than 5 million deaths worldwide each year.

World No Tobacco Day, and what it aims to achieve, resonates with me at a particularly personal level, having lost a father on this day 12 years ago to cancer most likely related to a lifetime of smoking.