To ask you for the thing that finally motivated you to stop smoking ...and did it work ?

There was no trigger point. Id smoked since I was 16, stopped while pregnant at 26, started up again after finishing breastfeeding and then just naturally stopped at around 33. Just phased out tabs, did switch on to vapes but then I felt awful with all that wasted plastic so just stopped.

Funnily enough DH (who is still a smoker and vaper) bought a new custard flavour for his vape and I really wanted to try it (who doesn't love custard!) and I coughed up a lung. Turns out I cannot inhale anymore. So that's a victory I'd say!

I've bought the Alan Carr book today. I hope it helps!

I wasn’t a mega smoker but liked one or two roll up’s. Diagnosed with cancer and have had two major operations on my throat. Never smoked again. And tbh any smoke, vape or nicotine really aggravates my throat. I have Chord paralysis post surgery, don’t talk in the same way and struggle to swallow. Not a chance I would be tempted.

I decided to walk across America.

Stopped 10 weeks before I set off. Didn't start again.

Very drastic.

A different view but this is what motivated me to never start.

Granny, Mum and Dad all smoke.
My Granny smoked in the house and died a horrible death with lung cancer. Her whole house was yellow with nicotine. I was 13 and begged my mum and dad to stop, they didn’t and said it was fine because they smoked outside… under my bedroom window.

My Dad had Lymphoma, followed by throat cancer and then lung and brain cancer. It was years and years of cancer - lung and throat certainly caused by smoking.

My mum is now in a vicious cycle of smoking and coughing. It’s awful to watch because it’s what will kill her.

Ruth Langsford’s lines around her mouth. I won’t do vapes as I dread to think what goes into those things. Cold turkey for me. Six and a half weeks in, it’s getting easier.

Honestly? The fear of dying being unable to breathe and not being around for my kids. They deserved more than that.

I tried to give up multiple times and in the end I just couldn’t face any more giving up and failing at it! So that time I gave up for good

I got pregnant. I’m lucky in that there were no vapes then so I avoided the dreaded continuous sucking on a plastic thing.
i smoked for 17 years but went cold turkey quitting. Haven’t had a drag since.

A serious cancer scare. Was put on the two week pathway and never smoked again. Luckily I got the all clear re cancer but it gave me the scare I needed to quit.

Those people I know who vape it’s literally like they have a dummy they’re reliant on!

I honestly think some people don’t realise how addictive vaping is. I know it’s deemed “healthier” than smoking but because you can almost do it “anywhere” compared to smoking people use it like a dummy. It’s constantly in their hand and they puff away without even realising. I had a patient at work the other day come into my surgery holding one. Half way through talking she raised it to her mouth to puff at it. She did notice and quickly dropped it back down. But it’s such a habit in some people they even go to do it during medical appointments! Not even a hardened smoker would have gone to light up in the past decade since the ban. Even my mother who was a 30 a day smoker got used to going outside very quickly. (Although she did moan about it a LOT).

I stopped and started smoking twice a year but always started again - Christmas and summer holidays. Then one year I was back smoking and working with a respiratory nurse on a COPD business case. I was finding out about the illness so I could write the case. She explained to me that your lungs degenerate anyway over your lifetime, but smoking expedites the process. She said your lungs never recover from the damage done by smoking, particularly the long cough that I always got after a cold. She said if you're lucky your lungs can last a lifetime but for some people they only make it to late 50s. Soon after that I got the cough to end all coughs, I was wetting myself after long uncontrollable coughing episodes. I realised in no uncertain terms that this was me, as smoking had always had a very severe impact on me, compared to other smokers.

I switched to vaping. I became so addicted to vaping that I was having the equivalent of about 300 cigarettes per day. I was waking up in the night to vape. Then it started to get more difficult to breathe, and I was gradually becoming lightheaded over a number of months. I got another cough and was frequently short of breath. I finally realised the game was up. When I quit the nicotine this time, it was extreme. The dosage I had been on must have been huge, because when I came off, it felt mind bending, like I was actually going insane. The mental pain was like nothing I've ever experienced before or since. I was 39 years old when I had my last cigarette, and 41 when I had my last vape.

I have a very addictive personality, and I never judge. I know that in a way I was lucky to hit the wall so young, because I would never have given up unless I was forced to.

I'm just following this for some inspiration. You are all amazing and I wish I had your strength.

Getting pregnant….in 1990

Fear of lung cancer. Members of my family had died young. Simple as. Also smell, feeling dependent, cost etc

A soppy one but I started seeing the most amazing bloke I'd ever met, he was a non-smoker and I didn't want my smoking to put him off, so I quit after 10+ years and many previous failed attempts. Of course he's been my husband for many years now (and he's still fucking ace!)

Yes - I was a hard core smoker from age 16. I thought I’d never give up until I read that book. It really changed my attitude and made me feel in control as opposed to smoking controlling me.

I started smoking around 17, wasn’t really a serious smoker till earning decent salary at around 19/20. Gave up when I got pregnant at 24. I only occasionally smoked for 6 years - very rarely and then stopped fully for my second pregnancy.

Then just smoked just the odd night out (rare) Then Covid hit and work for both husband and I ramped up WFH and trying to homeschool or entertain 2 children we both started smoking - both regretted it as the occasional ciggy become a habit! Husband gave up fully now for 3 years, he did the patches and gum etc and me cold turkey for 6 months.

No social smoking, and thankfully I never smoked at work so no habit to break there. It was the first one in the morning with a coffee and the one after work - I really really miss them!

I work for a well known, large retailer and in 2005/06ish a lovely girl came to work at my branch as my management trainee. We were both in our mid 20's, clicked immediately, and developed a firm friendship in haze of the now condemned 'smoking room'.

Life took over, she had her first child, and left to work at a branch more local to her. We still kept in touch via text and social media.

As time went on it became obvious on social media that something was not quite right with her, although nothing was ever publicly disclosed or confirmed. I never reached out, which is something to this day I deeply regret.

To cut a long story short, she got her angel wings aged 37, the result of a brain tumor, leaving behind a husband and two very young sons. She was a year younger than me.

Her funeral was beautiful. The love in the room, her sons walking behind her coffin. In that moment I made the decision that I would stop smoking because, although her death was not smoking related, I had to do everything I could to keep myself healthy and present for as long as possible for my young children.

Her passing is still the one that had the most impact on me. She was so young, so loved, and I still feel immensely sad about it several years on.

I loved smoking. Totally totally loved it. Even when I had a chest infection, even if I smoked too many I felt sick I still loved it. I smoked for 35 years, at least 20 a day. Then I got a blood clot in my leg, I couldn’t walk. Ran out of fags. Asked my partner to buy me some and he said no. He hated me smoking. I was house bound for about 6 weeks. Couldn’t get a delivery as we lived in an apartment with no lift and the delivery people wouldn’t come up the stairs. It was hard but I’d no choice. I couldn’t get any. When I was finally allowed out I was tempted to buy some but I didn’t. I sometimes still think I’d love a cigarette but then I think of the price, the smell and the ash all over you and that puts me off.

Allen carr’s book. Stopped there and then, twenty years ago.

I got fed up with constantly worrying about it killing me - my dad died of lung cancer, aged 65 after smoking 40-60 a day since he was ten. I’m a solo mum and I was always worrying about leaving my kids orphans. I’d given up when I was pregnant and a couple of other times in my life but always gone back to it. This time I took Zyban. Just the smell of a fag now makes me gag. I never think about smoking, unless I’m talking about no longer smoking. I’ve not smoked for over a year now and I feel pretty confident I won’t smoke again. If anyone here has tried everything but not managed to give up, I thoroughly recommend Zyban.