Why Chloe isn’t dead
Chloe isn’t dead.
In 2020, when Chloe was 15, she wasn’t able to buy her second pack of cigarettes from the local newsagent. The owner had worked with Trading Standards to cut out sales to under-18s.
The influencers she followed on Instagram didn’t post any images or videos of smoking. They had signed up to an industry agreement not to share any smoking-related content.
Her dad didn’t smoke in the house or the car any more. Legislation and a change in cultural attitudes had persuaded him to only smoke when he was away from the kids. Soon, he would switch to vaping.
So Chloe didn’t make another attempt to buy cigarettes.
When she was 25, she wasn’t too short of cash to move city to start a new job.
Her spaniel, Callie, didn’t develop lung cancer when she was middle-aged after long-term exposure to second-hand smoke.
She didn’t try to quit smoking three times, feeling more and more of a failure after each attempt.
She didn’t have to go through a battery of frightening, invasive tests as she approached retirement.
She didn’t need the resulting expensive, unpleasant treatment that lengthened her life for a few months.
Her husband didn’t face years of social isolation and poorer mental health.
She didn’t miss out on playing with her grandchildren.
And Chloe isn’t dead.
But there’s much more to her story than that.
Chloe absolutely loves her later years.
She finished her career on her terms and had a leaving party that got a bit out of hand.
She looks after her grandkids once a week, helping their mum and dad to avoid childcare costs and pay for better housing.
She volunteers at the local primary school, reading with children who struggle with words.
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Of the hundreds of thousands of children at school today, we don’t know who Chloe is or where she lives.
In 60 years time, we still won’t be able to pinpoint which of today’s kids were helped to live longer, healthier lives by specific “upstream” preventative public health policies.
We will be able to see the effects on society as a whole.
We know there are many primary prevention policies for health we can implement that are aimed at the whole population (i.e. everyone) such as:
· shifting towards an active travel approach to transport
· improving the quality and equity of educational outcomes
These are cost-effective ways of improving the health of hundreds of thousands in the years to come.
However, when thinking about health it’s easier to tell stories about life-saving new treatments or NHS staff making a massive difference to individual lives.
Rightly, we hear these incredible stories all the time. It’s harder to tell the tale of something that hasn’t happened.
We need a new wave of stories of prevention. Stories are what convince people to take action, become part of a movement — and allocate funding.
Even if we have to employ a bit of creative license along the way.
