A Millom teenager was among 20 youth campaigners from across the country to protest outside the British American Tobacco Annual General Meeting in London on Thursday (April 30).

The young people wanted to draw attention to the fact that the company profits massively from selling a product which is responsible for ill health and death.

Her actions got the full backing of ‘Dragon’s Den’ celebrity Duncan Bannatyne, a committed campaigner on tobacco related issues, who has personally protested at the BAT AGM in previous years.

Rosie Smith, 17, is a member of the national Anti-Tobacco Youth Campaign (ATYC) - part of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. She joined other young people, aged between 13 to 24, from Wales, Liverpool, Salford, Cumbria and London, to lobby shareholders attending the AGM.

This is the third consecutive year that ATYC has had a presence outside the BAT AGM. Last year they caused a stir by lining up 1,000 shoes outside the venue – each representing 100 African deaths by smoking each year. In this year of recession, the theme was ‘Pretty Packets = Pretty Profits’ and the young protesters wore T-shirts and waved banners emblazoned with those words.

They have also launched a youth petition lobbying the Government for stronger tobacco controls ahead of current consideration of the Health Bill in Parliament.

Anyone under the age of 25 who wishes to sign the petition should visit their site (see link).