After a 40-year smoking habit, I decided to stop before I’m unable to hold on to them anymore.
Recently, I was diagnosed with MND (motor Neurone Disease), which means that soon I’ll lose the ability to hold on to a cigarette and I’d rather stop now while I still can.
I started smoking when I was about 14-years-old. I was smoking about 25 a day when stress levels were high, but I cut down to maybe 15 a day in good times. There is no shops here at Pisa Moorings, so I would drive into Cromwell every single day to buy cigarettes. I’d go to the supermarket to buy them but I’d always buy other unnecessary items just because I was there so my habit was proving phenomenally expensive.
I have tried to stop in the past but traumatic experiences would always lead me back to smoking. It seemed I could just never escape it.
But then, when I was diagnosed with MND and I had been dropping cigarettes often, I decided it was time to get serious about stopping. I know when I lose my fine motor skills, it’s going to be hard but it would have been a lot harder if I had still been smoking. I’m going to be grumpy enough, but imagine wanting something you couldn’t have? My mind was telling me, this is the wise thing to do.
I found the Stop Smoking Coach through the medical centre. I found the experience incredibly helpful. The coach provided me with all the patches and information I needed and I haven’t wanted a cigarette since. I also use a vape now.
Her support, her listening, the chatting, the information and the products have been so helpful on my stop smoking journey.
I don’t miss smoking at all. I can smell things I couldn’t smell before, I can taste things I couldn’t taste before and my daughter and grandkids often tell me I don’t smell anymore.
I’m saving so much money each week, that I have a list of things I want to do. I want to buy an E-Bike and I want to go on a cruise.
All of that money in the past would have gone up in smoke. Literally.
