Lynda Mitchell is 52 and she is dying from smoking. She lives in the U.K. and grew up in a household where smoking was the norm; her parents routinely smoked 60 cigarettes per day. It’s not overly surprising that Lynda would be a prime candidate to contract Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) but what is surprising, is that Lynda has never smoked a cigarette in her life.

Lynda grew up in a home where her parents smoked day in and day out. She was so exposed to smoke that she grew up hating it and made the conscious decision to never become a smoker herself. In a tragically ironic turn of events, Lynda will ultimately die from a smokers’ disease despite never having been one. Her illness is a direct result of secondhand smoke. She is living proof the effects of secondhand smoke are VERY real.

Lynda’s parents, or parent rather, are no strangers to smokers’ diseases themselves. Her stepfather, Ray Evans, died of lung cancer (at age 60) twenty years ago. Her mother, June Evans, suffers from emphysema. An entire family suffering from the negative effects of smoking is experiencing said effects at different intervals.

For anyone who doubts, or denies, the negative effects of smoking, take a good long look at Lynda Mitchell . Not only will her parents become yet another number on the list of smoking casualties but Lynda herself will also pay the ultimate price…for something she didn’t even do.