Niamh Shackleton
Parents have been issued a fresh warning about the dangers of young people vaping after a teenager was left coughing up 'pints' of blood.
In August 2024, 17-year-old Jayden Richardson was 'terrified' when he started coughing up blood on the last day of his family trip to Turkey.
After flying home the next day, he was rushed to hospital where his mom, Elita Richardson, says medics thought he had a stomach ulcer.
Elita admits she thought it could be linked to the drinks, greasy food and having a kebab 'every night' when he was on vacation.
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However, the family were 'shocked' when an endoscopy showed the teen had 'severe' lung damage that doctors say was caused by his vaping addiction.
Jayden's said to have taken up vaping at the age of 12 to 'fit in' and would get through one 10ml bottle of vape juice every two to three days — which is the equivalent of around 50 cigarettes daily.
Recalling the scary incident last year, Jayden, from Shropshire, UK, said: "I was terrified. I never thought vaping could cause all this.
"It started off in Turkey. The night before I had a bit of chest pain but didn't really think much of it whatsoever. I woke up the next morning, had a quick go on my vape and just as if I had a bit of a chesty cough.
"I went to cough a few times and it felt a bit phlegmy so I went to spit it out. I saw that it was blood and this put me in shock. I didn't know what to do myself."
Going on to share how he got into the habit, the teenager added: "Everyone was doing it around me. I felt like it was kind of to fit in but it just felt normal to do it.
"I was vaping everyday. I wouldn't really put it down to be honest. It's just a bad habit really. Once you start, obviously it's highly addictive, it's hard to stop."
Meanwhile, his mom took to Facebook to share a post warning others to 'please consider vaping because you never think it's going to happen to you'.
The news of Jayden's scary experience comes as the World Health Organization warned that vaping is fuelling a 'new wave' of nicotine addiction.
The WHO's Dr Etienne Krug said: "They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress."
According to the WHO a whopping 15 million children across the world use e-cigarettes.
Even more worryingly, children are apparently on average nine times more likely than adults to vape.