The Forest Annual Awards are presented each year to those who have made a major contribution defending smokers' rights.
Sometimes they are announced, without fuss or hoopla, in the dead of night. At other times we organise a special party and invite our winners to collects their awards in person.
In February 2006, for example, a full house at the famous Groucho Club in London watched as Forest awards were presented to artist David Hockney (Smokers' Rights Champion of the Year) and Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas, who was given the title 'Smoker of the Year'.
Inventor Trevor Baylis received a special 'Pipesmoker of the Year' award courtesy of The Chap magazine, and Daily Mirror columnist Sue Carroll won 'Smoker-Friendly Journalist of the Year'.
The previous year guests at the same venue included Forest patron Antony Worrall Thompson and musician Joe Jackson who marked the publication of his booklet The Smoking Issue with a fierce attack on the so-called science of passive smoking.
For his commitment to the cause, including numerous television and radio appearances voicing his opposition to a ban on smoking in public places, Joe was given the title '2005 Smokers' Rights Champion of the Year'.