Geri's image goes up in smoke

Geri Halliwell's lunch started quite healthily: salad, mineral water with lemon slice and a cup of tea. Unfortunately, she then ruined it all by lighting a cigarette. As patron of a cancer charity, and a role model for young girls, she really should know the dangers of smoking.

The former Spice Girl had a cancer scare herself when she was still a teenager. She has also met countless sufferers in her work for Breast Cancer Care, and says she is keen to "raise awareness of this terrifying disease".

Geri was photographed reaching for a cigarette during a poolside lunch with a male friend in Los Angeles, a city famously intolerant of smokers.

Perhaps the 29-year-old singer, who promoted a healthy lifestyle by issuing a yoga video after her drastic weight loss, wanted the cigarette to curb any craving for pudding after such a virtuous lunch of a cheese - presumably low-fat - salad.

Before she had even cleared her plate, her nicotine cravings got the better of her, and she reached for a cigarette. Low tar they might have been, but it will not go down well with her colleagues at the cancer-fighting charity she has represented for more than three years.

Nor will the cigarette's ill-effects be cancelled out by what appeared to be the mouthful of vitamin pills she swallowed with a cup of tea while she smoked. Geri compounded the cancer risk by having lunch in the full glare of the Californian midday sun.

It all runs so contrary to the cancer-beating advice put out by the charity she works for.

Only a few months ago she appeared at the Dorchester to support Breast Cancer Care's annual fashion show, where cancer patients modelled clothes by designers including Nicole Farhi and Betty Jackson.

Her involvement with the charity began after she decided to support a cause related to her own experiences. At the age of 18, Geri found a lump in her breast and had to undergo emergency surgery to have it removed. The lump was subsequently found to be benign, but it was several days before doctors gave her the all-clear, and the singer says the frightening experience scarred her for life.

Launching a helpline for cancer sufferers during a breast cancer awareness month, she once said: "It is terrifying for any woman to find a lump in her breast. I just wish there had been something like this for me to call when I was suffering. It is really important that we raise awareness of this disease, and do all we can to help the 33,000 women a year who fall victim to it."