Why I quit

I KNEW it was time to give up smoking when I found there were not enough hours in the day to satisfy my habit. There were too many unwelcome obstacles placed between me and my four-inch friends. Like sleeping, taking the tube to work and even work itself. Sat at my desk, a main preoccupation was when could I pop out for my next fix?

Even a trip to the cinema became problematic, as I had to dash out mid-film for a sly puff.

There was no escaping the fact I was addicted - hook, line and stinker. I'd fallen for that ultimate smoke screen: believing that something smelly, foul-tasting, cough-inducing and potentially lethal was so damn alluring.

The trouble was, I just couldn't give up. There were stints when I tried, but even after several six-month stretches, I fell back into my old ways.

It seemed that whenever I worked up the willpower to blow a kiss goodbye to my nicotine habit, the hands of fate conspired to leave me grappling for another Silk Cut.

Like the New Year's Day I awoke to my new life as a non-smoker, but found I couldn't face cleaning up the post-party debris in my flat (including a vomit-sprayed loo) without six fags first.

Or the hairy internal flight from Instanbul to southern Turkey in an ancient Russian plane which had me in fear of my life and in need of a nicotine hit to calm my frayed nerves.

Even more bizarre was the time I got a new hair cut and lit up again because the 'new look me' just had to be a smoker.

Today - appropriately Ash Wednesday - the anti-smoking lobby lights up its annual PR fest, seeking to turn addicts off the evil weed. My contribution is this: if you don't give up today, don't beat yourself up about it. And certainly don't think you're 'destined to be a smoker'.

Giving up cigarettes is a bit like dieting. If you break your resolve to give up chocolate with a sneak KitKat at 11am on a Monday morning, most likely you'll scoff the KitKat, probably have another one every day that week then try harder next Monday.

So don't fret if you chain-smoke all the way through No-Smoking Day today. 'Landmark' dates like this, or New Year's Day, or your birthday, are rarely the best times to give up what may well be a habit of a lifetime.

The pressure is too great. And if you crack, you feel - or it's easy to make yourself feel you have to wait 12 months before you try again. Whereas, if you decide you're going to stop say next Tuesday, it's easier to switch to a Wednesday, or the following week, should you fall at the first hurdle.

The bottom line is, if you are going to stop smoking, do it to suit you. Decide what assistance you might need and go for it.

Patches and Polos are common crutches for new non-smokers, but by all means take up patchwork quilt-making if you need something to do with your hands. My preference was always to go cold turkey with just a little help from my Fisherman's Friends.

I found it best to quit over a weekend, as I knew I'd feel like a zombie for the first couple of days without nicotine and I didn't wish to be at work in such a state.

And as each day or week passes in your fag-free life, praise yourself for your achievement. Think often about the benefits you are amassing in terms of your health and finances.

I quickly found I could climb stairs without my lungs bursting and began sleeping better. My sense of taste improved and my skin became smoother.

As for the cash, in the three years or so since I've quit, I've saved myself around £7,000. Or I would have, if I'd put all my cigarette money in a piggy bank.

Ten smoking facts

There are an estimated ten million smokers in the UK and around seven in ten of them want to quit.

More than 10 million Brits have already quit the habit.

Smoking is the biggest single cause of ill health and premature death in the UK. One in five of all deaths are smoking related.

In the UK each year around 120,000 smokers die as a result of their habit - that's 330 people a day.

It is thought 450 children take up smoking every day in the UK - with more teenage girls becoming hooked than teenage boys.

The rise in the number of young girls and women smoking is causing lung cancer to overtake breast cancer in some areas as the leading cancer killer of women.

Studies show women are more emotionally dependent on cigarettes than men with almost half of male smokers wanting to give up compared to just 39 per cent of female smokers.

The average 20-a-day smoker spends more than £100 a month on cigarettes.

Smoking causes 30 per cent of all cancer deaths (including 82 per cent of lung cancer deaths), 25 per cent of heart-disease deaths and 83 per cent of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema.

In 1998, the number of smokers in the UK increased for the first time in years, rising from 22 per cent of the population to 23 per cent, according to figures from Silk Cut manufacturer Gallaher.

No smoking sites

SO you want to stop smoking, but don't know where to start? Several Internet sites have been launched for smokers looking to kick the habit.

www.quitsmokinguk.com - Launching today to mark No Smoking Day, this site provides chat groups, with the aim of creating a virtual support group for ex-smokers. www.feelgooduk.co.uk - Visit its 'stop-smoking centre' which aims to be a one-stop-shop full of stories, features, advice and links to help addicts give up.

www.surgerydoor.co.uk - This online health website - presented by TV doctor Mark Porter - has a section on smoking under its 'healthy living' link. www.ash.org.uk - The official site of the anti-smoking lobby group Ash has helpful advice on quitting and scary facts about smoking. It also flags up a tphone helpline: 0800 169 0169.