Tara’s journey to quit smoking

Oh, I had a love relationship with smoking. Absolutely loved it. Loved it. I think I started smoking behind the bike sheds when I was about 12 and I quite like the naughtiness of that, but I also like the smoking. And then I started to smoke roll-ups when I was 19. And that kind of that did start my love affair just because of the ritual of making a roll up was really important for me to open a pouch of tobacco to smell it and to make a roll up. Everyone who knew me knew that I smoked. You know, it was who I was. But I’d made my decision. I’d already made it and I wasn’t going to be swayed. But that doesn’t mean that the temptation’s not there and it’s not harder and it’s not there are there are times when you just really want to have a bag. I did eat quite a lot of chocolate. Don’t have a roll up. Have a cream egg. [Music] I was a healthy a smoker but a quite a fit healthy smoker and uh yeah I was just doing getting doing my general everyday things on a Saturday morning and I had a heart attack. One of my arteries was completely blocked. Completely blocked. I knew that it was smoking that gave me the heart attack. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that. And people work really hard. I needed to show my gratitude and in in a way I felt that to not smoke was one way of doing that. I knew it was going to be difficult because I love smoking. I can’t convey how much I love to smoke. The ritual of making a roll up and all of it. I loved it. But um I love life [Music] more. I didn’t realize how better it would be not to smoke. I thought I would miss it dreadfully. And in the beginning I did absolutely miss it. But I feel better for not smoking. I feel better as a person. I feel like I it was a massive challenge and I’ve succeeded in that. I feel I don’t know. Maybe I just feel more like me. I’m 53. I’ve been smoking for nearly 40 years. That’s a long time to smoke. I’m really proud of myself. Really, really proud of myself. It’s a big thing to give up smoking. A really, really big thing. And actually now I’m nearly a year smoke free. My family are very proud of me, too. And that’s important. [Music] Succeeding in the challenge is really good for my mental health as well, but having a heart attack very traumatizing. And so being able to give up smoking for me, I it just was about being proud, about making me feel good, about knowing that I could actually do something. Yeah, I’d had this massive life-changing event that has changed my life, but I’m still in control. It’s been a hard journey, but made easier by others. [Music] The first conversation I had was with the lady in the hospital that’s talked to me about one USA sorry who said that there was a service out there that could be over the phone wasn’t going to be a face to face and I thought you know I’m going to embrace all these services that I’m offering because the easier journey the better. It was only a few days after I had a phone call from a lady called Allison. We went through a bit of about what had happened and then she said to me do you think you’ll smoke again? And I said to her the same as I’ve said to you, “I will never smoke again.” She didn’t doubt me and I really like that. She was super real about it. She said, “You might fall off the wagon.” All of those things. She was a friendly woman on the end of the phone who didn’t know me, but had the faith in me, who had faith that made me feel encouraged to stop. To be able to say to her, “I haven’t smokes made me feel really good and still does when I think about it now. Makes me smile. [Music] Never too late. Absolutely never too late to give up smoking. It’s a scary place. You can be scared. You’re going to miss out on something that was was a massive part of your life. But then you can replace it with things that are so good. And and you know what? The challenge of giving up smoking, going from a smoker to a non-smoker, I can’t convey how proud of myself I am with that. I will never smoke again. Never. Not because I don’t want to let anyone else down, but because I don’t want to let myself down. [Music]