THIS being two days before the big day, we initially thought of running a nice Christmas picture here. You know the sort of thing: snow-blanketed streets, cheery displays of toys in shop windows, maybe a vintage photo of a department store Santa.

That was the general idea but then we saw this tantalising picture, and decided it was too interesting to overlook.

The photograph dates from No Smoking Day 1989. The subject is Bill Miller, a 60-year-old taxi driver from Thornwood, Glasgow, a smoker for 45 years who had last tried to give up 30 years earlier.

The organisers were sparing little effort to help smokers quit. Their events ranged from balloon racing to counselling events at Barlinnie. And smokers in George Square were invited to trade their ciggies for a warm mug of coffee.

The laudable aim was to make the city cigarette-free by the year 2000.

This March, on the 10th anniversary of the ban on smoking in public places, The Herald reported that smoking rates in Glasgow had dropped by 12 per cent since 2006.

Two figures leap out from that report in 1989: fully 80,000 smokers quit on No Smoking Day in 1988, but the city still had an estimated 330,000 others.