A former GAA player for Dublin, who appeared in a number of anti-smoking ads on behalf of the HSE, has died.

Gerry Collins died on March 2 surrounded by his family. He was aged 57. He originally starred in an ad for the HSE in 2011, during which he explained how he had taken up smoking because it ‘was the cool thing to do. It was all image and I was all about image'.

Despite giving up smoking, he was later diagnosed with lung cancer. He was treated for the disease and believed he had beaten it.

However last summer, he was told the cancer had returned and it was terminal.

Following this diagnosis, te took the brave decision of fronting another anti-smoking campaign for the HSE during which he said that ‘if one in every two smokers are killed by cigarettes, I thought I was a two. I thought I got away with it, but now I discover that I am a one'.

"I wish I had stopped smoking earlier, I really do. My life would have been totally different," he said in the ad.

Mr Collins is survived by his wife and three children.

His ad can be viewed here

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