Mother cuts out cigarettes to help Khandel-light
A MOTHER has vowed to slash her 20-a-day smoking habit to help a local charity. Marian Giannattasio, of Newmarket Road, Royston, is reducing her cigarette intake and donating the money she would have spent to Khandel Light, the Barley-based charity which
A MOTHER has vowed to slash her 20-a-day smoking habit to help a local charity.
Marian Giannattasio, of Newmarket Road, Royston, is reducing her cigarette intake and donating the money she would have spent to Khandel Light, the Barley-based charity which aids poverty-stricken villagers in the Rajasthan province of India.
So far she has cut down from 20 cigarettes a day to 15, saving �40 which will be put towards a water house - a 10,000 litre storage tank for drinking water costing �60.
Mrs Giannattasio, who is a part time hairdresser and mother to Sophia, 12, said: "I'm not giving up smoking - I would not like to come across as a saint - but I am reducing it.
"It does everybody a favour. It helps Khandel-light and it helps a family in Khandel - and it helps me. I'm sure it will do me good, and in any case smoking is such a waste of money.
"This gives me motivation and it is an achievable goal. And maybe I will save for another water house later," she said.
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She got the idea after speaking to her GP, Khandel-light founder Dr Peter Gough.
Dr Gough said: "It is a perfect win-win situation. She is going to make herself healthier and at the same time improve the lives of people who had not got access to drinking water. I think it is a great example and I hope many more will follow.
"Without the water there will be a lot more illness, a lot more deaths and a lot more migration to the big cities ending up with village people living in dire slums," he said.
For more information on Khandel-light, visit www.khandel-light.co.uk.
