Pensioner Patricia Scott had smoked for half a century but was getting increasingly fed up of her smoker's cough.

"From the time I woke up, it was cough, cough, cough," said Patricia, 67, of Acomb Wood Close, Woodthorpe.

She wanted to give up, but the breakthrough came in January when she visited an information day in York city centre, which she had seen advertised in the Evening Press, and heard about how an NHS Stop Smoking Group could help her quit the "evil weed."

She said she attended the group in Acomb every Tuesday lunchtime for seven weeks, and found the advice and mutual support invaluable. "You felt you weren't on your own," she said.

"Each week, we could talk among ourselves about how we were coping.

"There was advice on the things that could help, like tablets, patches and nicotine chewing gum, and you could talk about what you were doing." She said an NHS smoking specialist was on hand to give help.

Patricia said she had used patches, provided free by her doctor, to help her cope with nicotine withdrawal, but these were now coming to an end, and she would just use chewing gum if the cravings became desperate.

She estimated that she was saving about £7 or £8 a week, and she was collecting the savings until she had enough to go out and treat herself to something, such as a new outfit.

She said her husband Tom, himself an ex-smoker, had been "thrilled" by her decision ton quit.

"He says the house smells better!"

Updated: 10:04 Monday, May 09, 2005