Lenze Meinsma

Lenze Meinsma was laughed at when he appeared on Dutch television in the 1960s with the then uncompromising message “Smoking damages your health . . . it can even kill!” A nation in which 90% of men smoked dismissed Dr Meinsma, then director of the Dutch Cancer Society, as a “fanatic.”

He was certainly single minded, campaigning tirelessly through speaking engagements and school visits, writing angry letters to ministers and the press. Although he remained for years a voice in the wilderness, his efforts made him a national icon. He is remembered in his regional paper, the Leeuwarder Courant, on his death aged 85 as simply “the antismoking doctor.”