He quit cigarettes to save his life. But switching to vaping cost him everything.
Devastated mother Alison Grant is now pleading with others after her 34-year-old son, Callum, was found dead in his bed just months after giving up smoking in favor of e-cigarettes. The official cause: sudden respiratory failure linked to chronic vape use.
“He never woke up,” Alison said through tears in an emotional ITV News interview. “I kissed him goodnight the night before. By morning, he was gone.”
Callum had smoked Marlboro Reds for 14 years but switched to vaping after being told it was “95% safer” by friends and social media influencers. He bought a mint-flavored disposable vape from a local shop in Dorset. Within six months, he was using more than one a day.
“He said it made his chest feel tighter than cigarettes ever did,” Alison recalled. “But he kept saying, ‘At least I’m not smoking anymore.’”
The illusion of safety turned deadly.
After Callum’s sudden death, an autopsy revealed severely inflamed lung tissue, chemical residue buildup, and signs of oxygen deprivation. The coroner’s report linked the damage to long-term inhalation of vaporized chemicals.
“He had the lungs of a man twice his age,” said Dr. Naomi Fielding, a respiratory specialist who reviewed the case in a Sky News health segment. “And there was no other known cause.”
Vaping was once marketed as the cleaner alternative to cigarettes—but rising deaths are painting a more alarming picture.
A 2024 report from Public Health England showed a 300% rise in vape-related emergency hospital admissions in just two years. Experts now warn that daily use of high-nicotine vapes can cause bronchial scarring, vascular damage, and acute hypoxia.
Callum’s vape of choice—an unregulated Chinese-made brand—contained four times the legal nicotine limit allowed in the UK.
“His bloodwork looked like he had been smoking 60 cigarettes a day,” Dr. Fielding confirmed. “But all from one vape.”
Alison says her son had no other health issues. He didn’t drink heavily, he exercised, and he had just passed a routine medical exam six months prior.
“But the last few weeks, he kept saying his chest felt ‘tight and heavy,’” she said. “He thought it was allergies.”
The vape industry is once again under fire.
A recent undercover report by Channel 4 Dispatches exposed how illegal high-nicotine vapes are flooding UK markets, often mislabeled and sold without age checks.
“These devices are chemical cocktails,” said Anna Gilmore, Director of the Tobacco Control Research Group, in a Guardian exposé. “And they’re targeting a younger, more vulnerable audience.”
Callum wasn’t a teenager.
He was a software engineer. A weekend cyclist. A man who believed the ads.
“He trusted the message,” Alison said. “And now I’m burying him.”
She’s since launched a petition calling for stricter regulation and a nationwide recall of all unapproved vapes. The petition, hosted via change.org, has already gained over 500,000 signatures.
Celebrities are beginning to rally around the cause.
Jack Whitehall tweeted: “If it can happen to a healthy 34-year-old man, it can happen to anyone. Time to wake up.”
Even some vape influencers have begun removing content or issuing apologies. One viral TikTok creator issued a tearful retraction after reading about Callum’s story.
“This wasn’t supposed to kill him,” Alison said. “But now I have a death certificate in my kitchen drawer.”
She paused.
“I just want other parents to know. It’s not safer. It’s just slower poison.”
