Sheffield NHS Stop Smoking Service

“What has it been like for me?….this time round, a walk in the park!!! I have been a smoker for approx 30 years, smoking on average 20-25 a day. I used to smoke strong branded cigarettes until 1994 where I went on to roll my own with strong rolling tobacco, so I liked a full flavour and a strong smoke to say the least.

“I have attempted to quit umpteen times in the past using patches, lozenges, gum & I even went to hypnotherapy (twice), all attempts to quit were futile because, in my opinion, I was trying to quit for the wrong reasons… I knew I should quit, I was quitting for somebody else, I was quitting to save money or I was quitting for my health.

“All of the above reasons are valid and true reasons to quit, the only difference this time is that I WANTED to quit, the WANTING is the key.

“My last cigarette was on 29^th November 2009, I was using Zyban tablets and going for 1 to 1 support with NHS Sheffield’s stop smoking service. I also read the much acclaimed book “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking” by Alan Carr. Together, this book and the fantastic support from my stop smoking adviser, I not only successfully stopped smoking, I also stopped using the Zyban after 2 weeks into the 12 week course.

“Over the Christmas and New Year period, I was experiencing a very stressful time, I watched my mother pass away very slowly from secondary breast cancer. I still did not resort to smoke ‘to ease the stress’ because I knew it wouldn’t help me get through it all, people lose family members all the time, whether they smoke or not, so I believed I could cope through this as a non smoker and I have, with flying colours.

“I also joined a gym 2 weeks before I quit to help with the “new” lifestyle. 1 month after not smoking, my health improved vastly, this is a combination of working out and not smoking. The difference was a huge boost to me and proved to me that quitting has made me a much healthier and stronger person, not just physically but mentally too, my outlook is so much more optimistic and positive.

“A positive mental attitude and some determination, we humans can achieve anything we want to, if we WANT to.

“If you are trying to quit smoking and you fail, don’t be down hearted or hard on yourself, try again. There are no rules to quitting, we are all different in how we do things, if it takes another 10 attempts before you DO quit, so what, at least you tried and eventually won. Remember, you are not missing out on anything by quitting, you only stand to gain.”

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