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Families have been issued a warning after a 17-year-old boy was left coughing up blood from 'trying to fit in' with other kids his age. In a fresh alert to mums and dads, parents across the country are being urged to stay vigilant and speak to their children about the dangers of vaping.

It comes as recent figures show that around 7% of children aged 11 to 17 in Great Britain currently vape, that’s roughly 400,000 young people, according to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). For some time, doctors and health authorities across the UK have been raising concerns about the risks vaping poses to children.

One major issue is the widespread availability of illegal and counterfeit vaping devices, which often fail to meet safety standards. Trading Standards has seized more than a million illicit vapes in just one year. Officers say that these illegal products, along with underage sales, are among their biggest worries on the high street.

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Unfortunately, many young people turn to these unregulated sources because responsible sellers enforce strict policies against selling to minors and always require ID checks. The consequences of vaping, especially with illegal or high-nicotine products, can be severe.

Recently, Jayden Richardson, 17, who started vaping at 12 years old, suffered serious lung damage and coughed up "pint-loads" of blood - a condition doctors linked directly to excessive vaping. After her son’s frightening ordeal, mum Elita Richardson, from Shifnal, Shropshire, has issued a warning to parents, saying people don’t expect something this serious to happen to them.

Jayden Richardson says he began using e-cigarettes at 12 "to fit in". By the age of 17, he was getting through "one 10ml bottle of vape juice every two to three days," which his family say worked out to the equivalent of around 50 cigarettes a day.

He recalls being "terrified" on the last morning of a family holiday in Turkey in August 2024 after his habit triggered a 'frightening' symptom. "I woke up the next morning, had a quick go on my vape and just as if I had a bit of a chesty cough… I went to cough a few times… I saw that it was blood, and this put me in shock."

What began as "little bits" escalated fast. After Jayden "got into the swimming pool", he says he started "coughing up loads of blood into my hands." He was helped out and rushed to a bathroom where he recalls: "I’m coughing up pint-loads of blood… It was traumatic… a good 10 minutes of me coughing up pretty heavy blood."

He managed to fly home the next day, but after more bleeding at Birmingham Airport, his dad took him straight to the hospital. Jayden’s mum, Elita, claims that early checks pointed them in the wrong direction.

"They sent him for lung X-rays. Nothing was showing up… They were then saying, 'is it severe nose bleeds?'" Elita had even wondered if holiday "drinks", "greasy food", and a kebab "every night" were to blame.

However, a week later, after a camera test, she says: "The consultant said he’s never seen so much lung damage on a kid." She continued: "Excessive vaping, that’s what they said. It was a shock."

Jayden says medication and stopping vaping settled things down for a while. Months later, during his birthday weekend, he admits: "I ended up having another go on a vape. Stupidly… I thought the damage was done… a few tokes on a vape wouldn’t affect me. But I was totally wrong."

He describes sitting in bed, recognising "from the tone of cough" that "it was going to be my blood", and later suffering "sharp stabbing pain" on the left side. "I would never touch one", he says now.

When he was asked why he ever started, Jayden said: "Everyone was doing it around me… I felt like it was, kind of, to fit in… Once you start, obviously it’s highly addictive, it’s hard to stop."

He also warns about disposables and fakes. "When the disposables were more popular, you don’t know what’s actually in them," he said. "You find fake ones… They should be banned in every country."

In the UK, it’s illegal to sell vapes or e-cigarettes to anyone under 18, and adults who buy them for kids can be fined or prosecuted. Trading Standards regularly seizes illegal and unsafe vaping products from high-street shops, which worries many families because these are often how teens get hold of vapes.

There are several responsible sellers, for example, Vape At Door, that follow strict policies to prevent underage sales by checking IDs and refusing sales to minors. For most families, the advice is straightforward: keep talking openly with your kids, understand the rules, and be prepared to act if you notice any concerning signs.