As Xavier Roper struggled to breathe in bed and his girlfriend ran for help, the perils of his short vape addiction finally hit home.
The Year 12 student had picked up vaping nine months earlier, won over by messaging they were mere flavourful water vapour and safer than cigarettes.
But things had snowballed rapidly into e-cigarettes becoming a constant in his life and being the catalyst for "one of the scariest experiences of my life".
"Halfway through the night, I woke up, basically not being able to breathe," Mr Roper told reporters on Tuesday.
"Essentially, it was due to weakening my lungs through vaping and then a small virus just completely threw my lung health out just because of the condition my lungs were in."
Mr Roper, now 22, and Kate Walker are among the fresh faces of a new advertising campaign aimed at dispelling myths and highlighting the harms of vaping for young people.
Usage rates among people aged 16 to 24 have jumped nearly four-fold in recent years, with one in six adolescents vaping in the year to mid-2022.
Developed in consultation with young people and medical experts, the 'Every vape is a hit to your health' advertisements encourage young people to consider the proven health harms, such as nicotine addiction, lung damage, breathlessness, nicotine poisoning and burns from exploding vapes.
It comes amid a nationwide crackdown on their importation and distribution and fears of a developing health crisis.
The NSW Cancer Council says vapes have a host of cancer-causing chemicals, were leading non-smokers to cigarettes and often contained unlabelled nicotine, in a higher quantity than cigarettes.
Ms Walker said she had not registered that vapes contained nicotine when first handed one by a schoolmate aged 16.
As far as health information went, all she knew was the quit-smoking aids were marketed as being safer than cigarettes.
"And then I felt very sick, vomity and got headaches and kind of went, 'Oh, this is why people smoke cigarettes'," she said.
Anxious feelings when without her vape and other signs of nicotine addiction and worsening lung health were dismissed until she was rushed to hospital for pneumonia in 2022.
"Quitting was really, really hard but I'm so glad I did quit as I'm so much healthier now, I feel I've got my breath back," she said.
NSW's top doctor hopes the stories from young people will prompt others to ask if they are also addicted to the "insidious products".
"That sensation of anxiety when you're actually separated from your vape is actually a sign of that level of addiction," chief health officer Kerry Chant said.
The campaign coincides with school curriculum resources being updated with anti-vaping material, resembling anti-smoking messaging.
"I hear sometimes that there are young kids ... doing vape deals on Snapchat as young as 11 or 12 years old," Education Minister Prue Car said.
"That is the problem we need to confront."
Research from a Cancer Council NSW-led study also out on Tuesday shows a significant increase in young adults using vapes to relieve stress and anxiety and an all-time high in attempts to quit.
Customs officials meanwhile announced the first large-scale seizure of disposable vapes under new import bans.
Inquiries are underway into the intended recipient of the 250,000 cartridges, most of which were falsely labelled as "refillable atomiser".
The vaping crackdown is set to expand in March to impose restrictions on importers and manufacturers and cut down on flavours.
Permissible nicotine concentrations are also due to be reduced.
