A former Bath Chronicle journalist who smoked for 23 years has warned others about the dangers of smoking after he had his voice box and most of his throat removed.

John Moore, (67), had a 15-a-day habit until he discovered he had cancer when a course of antibiotics failed to rid him of a sore throat.

Now after undergoing a rare 11-and-a-half-hour procedure, he is breathing through a hole in his neck.

As a result, he is only able to speak through an electro-larynx unit until the hole - or stoma - is sealed and a valve is fitted to allow air back into his throat.

John, who also worked for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, said: "This is all due to smoking.

"I was not going to make it to new year - I would have been dead. But this could give me ten years or so."

The operation also means John will have difficulty eating for the rest of his life because his stomach was pulled up through his diaphragm to meet his throat and will now only be able to hold a small amount of food at a time.

He said: "The tissue the cancer held on to had to go, so in my case it amounted to most of my upper neck.

"They can't replace it with anything or put a plastic tube in there so my stomach has been moved up.

"There just needs to be four words on a cigarette packet - smoke and you die - and that is all I would say to anybody who smokes."