Stephen’s story:
Why I’ll never smoke
again after 49 years

Stephen has quit smoking after 49 years with help from our Be Well Stop Smoking Service. This is his story…

I started smoking when I was 11. Me and my mate thought it was a good idea to get a packet of cigs. It was like ‘I smoke now, you know, I’m a man’. You don’t realise at that age what you’re doing to yourself.

I used to get regular chest infections, especially in winter. I’d lie in bed at night and my chest would rattle that much it was like somebody was tapping on it. It was getting that bad it was waking me up – and then there’s the pain as well.

I used to get pins and needles in my arms and feet and that’s a bit scary. You think ‘my time could be up shortly’.

Neither my mum or my father made it through their sixties. My mum died of skin cancer and my father had prostate cancer. I’ve just turned 60 and I want to reach my next milestone.

I’ve got two boys, 31 and 29, and the eldest has two kids of his own. They’re only four and three. My wish is to see those two get married, or have children of their own. If I could live long enough to see that I’d be happy… but that’s another 20 years away.

At Christmas I had a really bad chest; I’d fill up half a coffee mug with phlegm from all the coughing. I thought ‘this time I’ve got to stop this’, so I went to the shop and bought two nicotine sprays. They were a little expensive but they got me started.

When I first came (to see the Be Well Stop Smoking Service) I hadn’t had a cigarette for two weeks. I came because I wanted that extra support to keep going, and it’s been brilliant.

I get on well with Melanie (health advisor), I can have a laugh with her. She’s been a great help, and I think everybody has, really – everybody that’s involved in this, Wigan Council and NHS stop smoking services. I tell everybody: ‘If you want to quit smoking, come and see these guys and they’ll do everything they can for you’.

They help you through it, they talk you through it, and they know if you’re not giving up because every time you go and have a carbon monoxide test… so you can’t lie to them or they’re going to know. There’s no having a sneaky one before you come in!

They have substitutes for cigarettes… there’s vapes, nicotine patches, lozenges, but the most effective for me are the nicotine sprays.

I always used to like a cigarette after having something to eat. Now I just have the spray, and it’s a lot better than having a fag. Very shortly I’m hoping to substitute that with a menthol spray.

Quitting, for me, is getting rid of that bad habit I’ve had for all those many years; all the money I’ve wasted. When I started smoking, cigarettes were only 11p a packet. They’re a lot dearer now.

I was spending, on average, about £120 a week. At the end of the year that’s just over five grand that you’re spending just on harming yourself.

Now, instead of buying a packet of cigs, I go to the cinema and watch a couple of good films at the end of the week, or go have a nice Indian and get something a little more expensive than I’d usually get. Nothing basic, something a bit better, something tastier.

You can enjoy your food a lot more when you don’t smoke. Before I was just chucking it down me, and it was just bland and everything tasted the same. I can sleep better as well, not wake up agitated needing a cigarette or hearing my chest rattling, and wheezing when I’m breathing.

I think smoking all the time puts you in the doldrums. You think ‘is this the only future?’. I’ve got more motivation now. I’m doing things that, before, I couldn’t be bothered with. I’d just sit in the house with a fag and a brew.

I feel more energetic. I’m a lorry driver and I used to find it difficult jumping in the truck. I was out of breath when I’d get to the top step. But now I can climb up and down. I live in an upstairs flat, and when I’m 65 I don’t want a stairlift fitted because I can’t get upstairs.

Quitting gives you confidence in yourself. I think nicotine is a disgusting smell, and when you smell somebody who smokes you think ‘bloody hell, I used to smell like that myself’. I don’t want to smell like that anymore. I don’t want to walk into a shop and it’s like a packet of cigs just walked in.

I do try to educate other people. When I see someone with a fag I say ‘they’re no good for you, them’. But I know some people have issues where they think they have to smoke, because they’re nervous or they’ve got things going on at home and they’re stressed out. That’s why they do it.

To be honest, I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment too but I’ve never let myself turn to a cigarette to sort it all out, and it’s a good feeling not relying on a little rolled up bit of paper with tobacco in it.

Stress makes you turn to smoking, but I don’t let myself get in that position anymore. I just think ‘chill out, take your time, let things take a back seat for 10 minutes, don’t let things bother you’. That’s the way forward for me. I’ve got to think positive.

I want to reach my next milestone, which will be 70, and if I carry on smoking I don’t think I’ll get that far. A lot of friends… even my own stepfather died of lung cancer. That must be the scariest thing in the world, knowing your life is limited and that you’re just going to get more and more ill. You don’t want your family seeing you like that, dying in a hospice or at home, not having fulfilled your wishes of what you want to do.

If you’re thinking of giving it up, please do. Take up that opportunity to stop and grab it with both arms. Especially if you’ve got children. They don’t want to see you smoking all the time.

My grandkids used to say to me ‘why do you smoke them things?’ ‘I don’t know,’ I’d say. ‘Do you have to smoke them?!’ ‘No, not really.’ ‘I’m not going to smoke when I get older.’ I’d say ‘I hope you’re not. Hopefully by then cigarettes will be a thing of the past’.

I don’t want to smoke again. Definitely not. And I don’t think there’s anything in this world that will make me smoke again.

If you’re thinking of quitting smoking, the Be Well Stop Smoking Service is here to help with a range of practical and convenient support options to fit your lifestyle! Get in touch by giving us a call or completing our online self-referral form below.

Call us on 01942 828535