‘World’s oldest man’ wants to quit smoking, blames devil for addiction

Fredie Blom is 114 but he still can’t kick the habit that has enslaved him for the better part of his working life. Blom spent most of his life in Cape Town, South Africa.

The South African, who spent most of his life as a labourer,  might soon be recognised as the world’s oldest man,

Shockingly, he is still a regular smoker. He smokes two to three ‘pills’ – slang for tobacco rolled in paper – every day.

He told BBC: “Every day I still smoke two to three 'pills'.  use my own tobacco because I don't smoke cigarettes. The urge to smoke is so strong. Sometimes I tell myself I'm going to stop but it's just me lying to myself. My chest chases me to have a puff and I'm then forced to make a 'pill'.I blame the devil for that because he's so strong.”

Blom quit drinking many years ago but just can’t kick his smoking habit. A tall man despite his age, he shows very few health ailments and only has some trouble walking, which he does unaided. His wife is 29 years his junior and she said he has only been the hospital once in his entire lifetime.

He worked as a farm labourer before working in a company that installs pre-cast concrete walls.  He is completely oblivious to the political change that has taken place in South Africa since it was under white minority rule.

He said: “I worked on the farm - there was no time for anything else but to do your work. We only heard fleetingly about politics."

The oldest man in the world likes to eat meat in every meal but also eats a lot of vegetables. Even at his old age, he is strong enough to wash and dress himself and only struggles to put on his shoes.

He rues: “I can't do anything - I can't even get on a ladder any longer. I just sit around. I don't have time for the nonsense that's on TV”