James

James recently made the decision to stop smoking after 41 years, we caught up with him to see how he found the experience and this is what he told us.

I have been a smoker ever since I was 14 years old and I am 55 now, that makes it that I have been smoking for 41 years! I started smoking because both my mum and dad smoked all their lives so it became taught behaviour. I never really thought about stopping because I didn't want to, I had never been a drinker, so I considered my cigarettes as a treat for working so hard.

As a young man I worked seven days a week to support my young son and wife, then I passed my test to drive a truck and spent time away from home travelling around Europe still working ridiculous hours to pay my way in life. Some people would consider the free trips around Europe a very good job and to be fair I enjoyed most of it, although it should be considered that wherever you go and whatever you are able to see it’s not very good fun on your own.

I was made redundant recently and was able to spend time at home meeting people I had not seen for many years and a realisation of what I had missed, although a new job and less money I had to make a choice between cigarettes and more family life. I prepared myself to stopping smoking to be able to reduce my expenses so that I could spend more time with family and friends, I knew the journey would be hard although I considered that the love for my family was greater than the love for the cigarettes.

It is hard and the first couple of weeks were torture, I got to 20 days and relapsed and had a cigarette and spent a couple of days smoking again, when I saw what it had done to my bank balance I soon stopped. The cigarettes were costing me £20 a day and I have been quit on and off for 45 days which adds up to £900, although much more than that I get to spend more time with my loved ones because I don’t have to earn so much.

I have started to enjoy life more, feel a lot better and purchased a pedal bike with the money I have saved. I would just like to add what is more important your cigarettes or your family because I know what is more important to me.