A well-known auctioneer has been forced to give up his job after losing his voice through cancer.

Malcolm Skidmore was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, which is normally associated with smoking - although he has never smoked in his life.

He had to have his voicebox removed after collapsing and nearly dying at the end of last year.

Graham Buckley, a consultant head and neck surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary, said the chances of a non-smoker contracting the disease were rare.

He said: "This particular cancer affects 4.4 people per 100,000 in Yorkshire - that's 44 cases per million. Ninety eight per cent of these are smoking related so for him to contract it was very unfortunate."

He said it was difficult to prove a link with passive smoking and some people may be genetically more likely to get cancer than others.

Mr Skidmore's wife, Mary, said comparisons might be drawn with entertainer Roy Castle, who believed his fatal lung cancer was caused by passive smoking. "I could understand that because he was playing in clubs while Malcolm worked in auction marts and furniture sales rooms which were more draughty than smoky," she added.

Mr Skidmore, 67, of Lee Lane, Cottingley, was renowned throughout Yorkshire for his auctioning skills, especially in Otley and Settle.

He responded to the T&A's questions in written form.

He said: "It was the surgeon's quick actions that saved my life. I had suffered voice problems for some time and collapsed and nearly died in hospital.

"It was very traumatic and has been utterly devastating. It's frustrating not being able to communicate though I do hope to get some semblance of a voice back eventually and am starting speech therapy."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.