Today is the day

Carol from Grimsby started smoking at the age of 13 and quit for her health

“I started smoking at 13-years-old due to a hard childhood and no awareness around how bad smoking really was.”

Relationship with smoking
I smoked for many years and enjoyed it, I didn’t want to quit. My husband decided to go smoke free in 2009. He attended a local support group and he asked me to go with him but I didn’t. I soon wished I had. He was given nicotine replacement in the form of Champix. He stopped very quickly and is still smoke free to this day. He says it’s the best thing he’s done.

Why quit
In 2015 I became very ill with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (caused by the immune system attacking the thyroid gland, making it swell and become damaged). My GP and consultant told me smoking wasn’t helping my condition so I tried to stop. I then became more ill and knew I couldn’t even try to start smoking again otherwise I could die.

Tools to quit
I went ‘cold turkey’ as I had to quit so quickly. It was easy to stop as I’d gotten so ill. I believe if you want to stop you will, with the right support.

Changes
In 2020, I can see stopping smoking is the best think I ever did. I wouldn’t be here today if I’d carried on.

Quit Together
Encouragement from friends and family helps more than they think. My husband was amazing and so supportive.