Why Smoke Cigarettes? 3 Reasons Why People Smoke and Why They Are False

It almost seems common knowledge today that smoking is bad for you. Why smoke cigarettes then? What benefit could there be to smoking? Even though most smokers know the risk of their habit they may have formed their own reasons to continue smoking.

Make no mistake that smoking is bad and negatively impacts every area of a smoker's life from their health to their finances. Once again, smokers know this but may have come to certain conclusions to justify continuing to smoke.

Many of these reasons are not true and may cause them to continue smoking unnecessarily. Listed below are three of the main reasons that people continue to smoke and why they are not true.

Smoking Relaxes Me

Many people continue smoking because they feel smoking relaxes them. This is just not true. As a matter of fact nicotine is a stimulant and raises blood pressure. Any relaxation the smoker feels when they light up is temporary and is only because they are giving their body the nicotine is craves, which leads us to reason number two.

I am Addicted to Nicotine

A lot of smokers excuse themselves from trying to quit smoking because they believe they are just too addicted to nicotine to quit. The truth of the matter that the only thing that feeds the addiction to nicotine is smoking that next cigarette. The physical addiction to nicotine passes with less than a week of quitting smoking. By this time all the nicotine has passed out of the smoker's system.

It is Too Hard to Quit Smoking

Many people feel it is just too hard to quit smoking. Maybe they have tried to quit in the past and failed and feel they just do not have the "will power" to quit. Look at it this way, every day thousands of people quit smoking. They are in no way stronger or possess more will power than anyone else. There are so many different methods to help smokers kick their habit. Methods like NLP, or Neuro Linguistic Programming give smokers an incredibly great chance of quitting smoking in their first, or next, attempt.

Everyone knows smoking is bad for them so why smoke? Cigarettes destroy your health, your looks, and your finances. Do not fall into the trap of justifying your habit. There are no good reasons to smoke. Quitting smoking is the best decision you will make in your lifetime. Find the help you need and quit smoking, you deserve it.

Are you ready to quit smoking? Why smoke cigarettes any longer when there is a technique available that will give you a 97.2% chance of being smoke-free. The technique is called NLP and thousands of people have easily quit smoking using this revolutionary technique.

Learn more about how NLP can easily help you become an ex-smoker at http://www.stop-smoking-method.info.

Reasons to Quit Smoking - Why You Are Endangering Your Life and That of Your Loved Ones

As a smoker, you are at an increased risk to contract a number of diseases and infections. Most cancers, for instance, are either caused or largely contributed to by tobacco smoke and the carcinogens in it; and a lot of other diseases easily follow suit. If you were to stop smoking today, your risk of contracting those diseases significantly reduces. For a fact, the longer you stay off of the substance, the better your chances of not catching any of these diseases.

Think about it for a moment; you aren't the only one at increased risk of disease because of your bad habit. Everybody around you who has to breathe in the air that you have contaminated is also at risk of the very same diseases that are likely to kill you if you continue smoking. People with asthmas too can suddenly lapse into attacks in your environment because cigarette smoke is a known irritant; the same way that a lot of diseases are complicated by it. If you hope to keep your loved ones alive, you will do yourself a favor and stop smoking already.

Expectant mothers who smoke can cause birth defects in their babies, and often increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome in their newborn. If you need an excuse to break the habit, there is no better time than when you are pregnant. By the time you give birth to the child, you should be safe enough from the addiction to be able to do without nicotine.

Thankfully, all around you, there are a lot of smoking cessation programs that you can try your hand on, one after the other, until you are finally cigarette free; it only makes sense that you employ them to save your life and that of your loved ones.

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Benefits of Giving Up Smoking - Do You Know the Best Reasons For Quitting?

One the best things any smoker can do for themselves and those they care about is to stop smoking. I want to mention a few benefits of giving up smoking here in the hopes that it will help you to finally free yourself from your cigarette addiction. The more reasons you have for giving up cigarettes, the more likely you'll be to succeed.

Health reasons are usually the first thoughts that come to mind when someone considers why they are going to stop smoking.Of course you know that your health will improve if you stop smoking. Smoking causes 90% of lung cancers and most chronic lung disease. But lung cancer isn't the worst of it. Lung cancer is a relatively quick (although painful) death. Chronic lung disease is a slow, debilitating painful death. If you're struggling to catch your breath just walking across the room, it's pretty hard to enjoy anything in life. As of lung disease progresses, life becomes more and more limited. Some smokers reached the point where they have to carry oxygen with them everywhere they go. At this stage, life pretty miserable

There is no safe level of smoking. You can't smoke without damaging your lungs. Some smokers claim that the lungs are fine. In a word, baloney. No matter what their level of function is, it would be better if they didn't smoke. The stories of "old Uncle Henry who smoked like a chimney and was never sick a day in his life" probably aren't true. Even if they were, it's a rare exception not the rule.

Your mental state will improve after you quit smoking. Showing the degree of commitment it takes to give up smoking will definitely increase your confidence and sense of pride. Many former smoker's report that the experience of quitting smoking gave them confidence that they could do anything else they set their mind to.

Smoking is hugely expensive so your finances will also benefit when you quit smoking. The cost of cigarettes has gotten to the point where many smokers spend a good portion of their budget on cigarettes. It seems ironic to spend so much money to injure yourself. Think about all the better things you could do with that money when quit smoking once and for all. Most smokers could easily fund their retirement accounts or take a fancy vacation every year with what they spend on cigarettes. Some smokers could even do both.

You aren't the only one you'll be helping when you quit smoking. The benefits of your quitting smoking extend to those you love. Secondhand smoke injures those you live with physically. Watching you commit slow suicide with cigarettes wounds them emotionally.

I wish I could tell you that it's simple and easy to stop smoking. Unfortunately I can't. But quitting certainly isn't impossible and I can tell you that you can succeed at giving up smoking with the combination of commitment and some of the stop smoking techniques available today. With the right help it might be easier than you expect.

A place to start becoming smoke-free is: Quitting Smoking Benefits.

You should also know about a program that has a 90% success rate in helping people give up cigarettes without experiencing major cravings. You can read about it at: Quit Smoking Review

When Giving Up Smoking Choose a Method That Will Stop Smoking Cravings

When giving up smoking there are a lot of different ways you can go about it. You can decide to go it alone, or go "cold turkey" or you can choose any number of stop smoking aids to help you quit smoking. Some techniques are more successful than others but one stands out above all the others.

Let's first rule out going cold turkey if you are serious about quitting smoking. Those that choose this method to stop smoking only have a 5% chance of being successful. Those odds are not very high. If you really want to break the smoking habit you are better off choosing some method to help you increase your chances of being successful.

Most of the options available to you address the physical addiction to nicotine. Nicotine replacement therapies like the patch, or stop smoking prescription medications help to break the body's addiction to nicotine. They can increase your chances of quitting smoking but still do not give you a better than 50% chance to quit smoking.

The reason is that they do nothing to address the real reason why most people are not successful at quitting smoking. Most smokers who try to quit end up lighting up again because of the mental cravings they feel to smoke.

Cigarettes are a very big part of your life. As a smoker most everything you do or feel you associate with having a cigarette. Once you give up smoking you will find yourself in situations, or feeling emotions like stress, anger, or even happiness that will make you want to smoke.

You need to break the emotional attachment you feel for smoking. This attachment leads to strong cravings to smoke when you encounter situations or emotions you associate with smoking.

There is a technique that is designed to address the cravings and emotional attachment smokers feel for cigarettes. It is called Neuro Linguistic Programming, or NLP for short. It is an extremely successful technique to quit smoking because of the fact that it targets and removes the mental cravings to smoke. A recent test showed NLP had a 97.2% success rate.

NLP is a therapy technique somewhat like hypnotherapy in that it addresses the subconscious urges to smoke. But unlike hypnotherapy you do not need to see a professional to stop smoking. NLP benefits can be gained by listening to an NLP audio recording in your own home. Many people quit smoking after just one listen.

When giving up smoking you may also like the fact that NLP is a natural product. If you choose NLP to help you quit smoking you will not have to deal with the cost or side effects of prescription medications.

When giving up smoking do you really want to try methods that do not address the cravings to smoke that make most people fail at quitting smoking; especially when there is a proven method that is 97.2% successful because it kills the cravings to smoke and it could have you smoke free in less than an hour?

Find out how to eliminate the cravings to smoke and easily stop smoking with NLP at http://www.stop-smoking-method.info.

Reasons to Stop Smoking

Most people know that smoking is bad for them but many don't really understand just how bad it is. They know there are health risks but they push them to the back of their minds. If you are a smoker thinking, "well you've got to die of something haven't you" or "it won't happen to me" then you really should consider the facts and reasons to stop smoking.

A regular smoker is likely to have their life expectancy reduced by up to ten years. Do you really want to lose ten years of your life when you don't have to? Coupled with this is the likely prospect that the latter few years of your life if you are a regular smoker are likely to be of poor quality due to some heart or lung disease that could have been avoided.

The adverse effects on one's health through smoking are manifest in the lungs, the blood circulatory system and the heart. In the lungs the constant irritation of inhaled smoke causes damage leading to reduced lung capacity and bronchitis. The lining of the airways tends to lose its cilia, the little hair-like protuberances which help to clear them of mucous and contaminants so that infection in the lungs becomes more likely. Older people who are regular smokers are more likely to succumb to a bout of flu and a secondary infection because of damaged lungs.

The effect of nicotine on the blood vessels is to constrict them, and, since the small blood vessels that supply blood to the heart, are all ready narrow and may have been further narrowed by a build up of plaque (atherosclerosis) which is very common, the last thing you need is further narrowing and restriction of blood flow. Such further restriction can easily lead to arterial blockage and a heart attack.

These serious health risks should be enough in themselves to persuade you to give up smoking but if you are young you may dismiss all this as being too far into the future for you to worry about. If you not heed the advice and give up now though, you will surely regret it in the future.

If you need good reasons to stop smoking right now then there are both social and financial reasons that can affect you right now. Financially you can be surprisingly better off if you don't buy cigarettes. Most smokers, like most drinkers, seriously underestimate the amount of money they spend on the habit. If you put aside the money you would have spent and save it for two to three months, you could have a sizeable sum - enough to buy a new bike or an Armani suit probably! Your lifestyle would have improved as, not only will you be feeing more fit and healthy but you will have more money in your pocket.

Smoking is generally becoming less and less socially acceptable. It is now banned in many public places including even pubs, once the safe haven for the inveterate smoker. You will not find ash trays in restaurants so much these days, let alone the workplace. You will feel like an outcast if you have to excuse yourself from a social gathering to nip out the back for a quick cigarette.

The anti-social aspect of smoking is heightened by the now recognised threat of passive smoking. People just don't want to near smokers, especially in confined spaces and this has to be respected.

A smoker on a date should be aware of the possible consequences of bad breath or stained fingers from smoking. Along with hair and fingernails these are things that women tend to notice.

There are then, very good reasons to stop smoking. Quitting now will save you money, make you more socially successful and allow you to live longer. You know the reasons to quit- you must now make the decision to quit.

To learn more Reasons to Stop Smoking visit http://www.giveupsmokinghelp.com

So What is an Easy Way to Stop Smoking?

No matter how long you have been smoking, you can always quit when your mindset is ready. Is cold turkey the best answer? Maybe. How about cutting back little by little? Possibly. The truth is there are many ways to quit, but most of them are either short-term solutions or they just don't work. If you want to know an easy way to stop smoking, we're going to share a few different options with you today.

*Put Your Mind to It!

Even though each person's road to a smoke-free life will be different, everyone who looks for an easy way to stop smoking must have the right mindset before getting started. If you feel that this is going to be a struggle, you will definitely want to take a route other than cold turkey. It's not a big stop smoking tip, but it can definitely help.

*Find Distractions

We understand there will be obstacles along the way, but if you want an easy way to stop smoking you will need some distractions. Whether it's trying to replace your cigarette with a straw or pen, trying to do something else every time you have a craving, or even drinking water when you need a smoke, they are all considered helpful distractions. Then of course you have things like exercise, music, movies, and even just go somewhere that doesn't allow you to smoke. Nowadays when you head out to a restaurant in most states, you aren't allowed to light up, which makes it an easy way to quit smoking. Well, even just for that period of time anyways.

*Gum, Prescriptions, Sprays

While there are some places that believe gum, prescriptions and sprays can be an easy way to stop smoking it's simply not the case. Yes there have been successful stories, but no one ever really talks about the side effects. The truth is most of these types of potential remedies end up failing. In fact, we've come across several friends and co-workers who have even smoked while using these treatment methods. This of course is not healthy.

So What Is the Easy Way to Stop Smoking? In the end it really depends on you. It's important to understand that after your body is used to the nicotine being in the system, it's hard to replace. The best smoking tip we can give you is that every situation is different. However, over the years people have come up with a stop smoking tip for just about everyone.

If you're tired of hearing that the easy way to stop smoking is something we listed above, then we highly recommend taking a different route. One that will make you think outside the box and start building the right path towards the easy way to quit smoking.

Best Way to Quit Smoking - The Simple Truth About Quitting Smoking Revealed!

Everyone is always out there looking for the best way to quit smoking. What they do not realize is that what may be the best for one person, may not be the best for another. This does not mean however that you do not want to listen to the advice of the consumer reviews of the stop smoking products out there. If most of the people who have tried the product claim that it is indeed the best way to quit smoking, there may be something to it. Basically, there is a better chance of it working for you if it worked for a lot of other people.

How To Defeat Your Cravings For Sweets

If you are doing as much research as possible, you will be able to find something that works for you in no time at all. In the meantime, make sure that you are educating yourself on the different things you should expect when you stop smoking. One thing is that you might crave sweets. Simply drink a glass or two of juice a day and that should curve your cravings without having to eat several candy bars.

Don't Ignore The Mental Aspect

Also, you want to make sure that you are talking out any problems or frustrations that you are having, even if you have found the best way to quit smoking for you. Talking things out will help with the mental aspect of it all. Remember, this addiction is just as much about habit as it is the nicotine so that is not something that you simply want to ignore.

Want To Find Out More?

If you want free tips and advice on how to quit smoking you'll find a wide variety of natural methods that we've tested and proved work. Why not visit http://tipstostopsmoking.net/ and grab our free report. You could be 12 hours away from quitting smoking!

Do Not Try a Stop-Smoking-Hypnotist Until You Read This Review

Stop smoking hypnotist is a trained professional in hypnotherapy that can help people with their problems. This is a popular method that has been successful and has helped many people quit smoking cigarettes for good. During hypnosis, a person moves past the conscious mind and into the subconscious mind. It is important to note that the subconscious mind evaluates and edits different thoughts and inputs while the subconscious mind absorbs this information. In reality, the conscious mind is not able to tell difference between what is real and what is not. This same concept can be used to help people eliminate their filthy habit.

If a person can imagine themselves as a non smoker and act as one, the subconscious mind can definitely accept this. Thus, the person can move past any cravings and become a non smoker. However, most people do the exact opposite. They believe they are not able to give up smoking because they will have terrible withdrawal or not be able to enjoy social events. Even more, they think that they are giving up their relaxation, freedom from boredom, and focus. However, these are really just myths. Any stop smoking hypnotist will tell you that these are just mythical reasons you made yourself believe.

Smokers do not experience withdrawal when they quit but rather during their entire smoking life. Yes, this is correct and is the only reason they light their next cigarette. Otherwise, there would not be a reason to light the next cigarette. Stop smoking hypnotist will tell you that people scare themselves about many things before they even experience it. Thus, they are making their situation much worse then it is. It is important to understand that hypnosis methods are very much related to cold turkey and not gradual reduction. The reason is that any nicotine intake will result in thinking about the habit rather then just ignoring it.

Have you ever wondered why nicotine replacements have such a low success but are such a hot market. Many people who have quit cold turkey with hypnosis methods understand that any person will not end nicotine addiction by taking more nicotine. Thus, stop smoking hypnotists understand that people can not cure addiction to something by taking the same thing they are addicted to. This is the reason why many experience such strong withdrawal and end up relapsing and prolonging their addiction to cigarettes. In reality, if smokers knew why they smoke, they would have very little difficulty quitting. This is why hypnosis can be a great method.

It is understandable that many people may not have money to visit a hypnotist. That is not a problem as there are audio, video tapes and ebooks just as effective to help anyone quit. It is important to make sure they have a high success rate and have been created by a credible source.

For more information on a sure way to stop smoking (with 97.2% success rate) In Less Than 40 Minutes, please visit: http://www.naturally-quit-smoking.info

Stop Smoking Hypnotherapy - Are You Sick of Patches, Gums, and Pills That Don't Work? Try This!

Have you been trying hard to stop smoking?

You have already been through all the chapters of natural remedies, Nicotine Replacement Therapy and medications but still can not fight the urge to smoke? Do not despair. Did you know hypnotherapy can help you quit in as little as one session? Hypnosis is one of the best approaches that can help you become a non-smoker today. Hypnosis involves allowing the person to relax but at the same time is focusing on a certain problem.

During hypnotherapy, you fall into your subconscious state. Your mind cannot tell the difference between reality and imagination and when you are hypnotized, the subconscious can become an imagined reality. So when you are hypnotized, you are imagining yourself to be a non-smoker and the subconscious recognizes that as a reality.

Hypnotism has been used for ages by professional hypnotherapists to help countless people overcome their addictions, relax and to reduce stress. Hypnotism is not just a stage show or a parlor trick. Anyone can be hypnotized and be made to re-program their subconscious mind.

Hypnotism is a natural state of the brain. It relaxes your body and your conscious mind to take over the subconscious mind and feeding it with "imagined reality". The subconscious mind does not really understand the difference between the reality and imagination. By training this subconscious mind to believe that you are not a smoker, you can overcome your addiction and quit smoking for good.

Though there are many products available today to help you kick the habit of smoking, the success rate is high to stop smoking with hypnotherapy. Many people also claim that combining hypnotherapy with other stop smoking programs can achieve better results.

According to studies, using hypnosis to stop smoking has a high percentage rate of success. How ever, it is recommended that you seek the help of a certified hypnotherapist if you want to undergo hypnotherapy or self-hypnotism. Ask yourself this question." Am I really determined to quit smoking?". If your answer is yes, then hypnosis is worth a try.

Warning: right now hypnosis might not even be the right method for you to stop smoking! Discover a stop smoking system that is used by psychotherapists to help people around the world kick the habit, and it works in as little as 38 minutes! Click here to stop smoking today.

Methods to Make Quitting Smoking Easier For You

Are there really some easy quit smoking methods out there? In truth, there is no instant method that will make you quit without lifting a finger. A game plan and following a game plan is still required.

There is finally a way to quit smoking, which may not be effortless, but relatively easier. If you talk to other people especially smokers, they may discourage you and say that it's impossible. But that's not true. If you really want to kick the habit, you should muster up some determination and really push through a plan of attack. That, plus some helpful advice and guidance from various quitting systems available will help you succeed.

Those who say that it is absolutely impossible for smokers to stop smoking are most likely also the people who are too lazy and settled on the habit to even make an effort to quit. They keep saying to others what they say to themselves, that it is really impossible.

For those smokers out there who are set on quitting, do not let yourself fall into that trap. Most likely, you don't even remember why you started smoking and that you realize that it is really self-destructive in more ways than one. Quitting is possible and here are methods that will help you along.

A great method is to first think off and list down all the benefits or reasons why quitting should be done. Just as they say: if there is a will there is a way. Listing things would help motivate you and clarify why you need to do it.

Another method for you is to stay in a house that is free from other smokers. Having to live with other smokers is such a challenge because you will be constantly tempted by the smell and by the cigarettes lying around that you can easily get.

You have to be warned that you will experience some withdrawal pains from nicotine. But not to worry, there are lots of nicotine patches and gums out there that will help you get through this problem. That will take care of the biological addiction, but you will still have to deal with the psychological addiction which is the biggest addiction of all.

The gums, patches, and hard candies that contain nicotine for those who want to quit can be found in any store. They contain small amounts of nicotine so that it will help the quitting person to compensate for the sudden lack of this addictive substance as an effect of quitting. The dosage on these things can then be lessened as the days go by. Anti-depressants such as zyban, Chantrix, and other medicine can also be used to help lessen the withdrawal syndrome. If these are still not enough, you should look for other programs about kicking the habit, which many are available online.

Great Quit Smoking Methods To Help You Kick Your Smoking Habit Easily. Visit Our Free Online Quit Smoking Guide For More Tips Today!

Good Reasons to Quit Smoking Today, What Are They?

Should you quit your smoking habit? Well, everybody has his own personal reason to quit smoking. It is plain obvious that the best reason to quit smoking is because it is bad for a person's health. There is just no denying to that fact. Even if some heavy smokers survive during their old age, smoking did not help them do that.

Everybody knows that each stick of cigarette is a small stab at your life. More than four thousand poisonous substances in cigarette exists. Lung damage is absolutely inevitable and lung cancer is also likely.

Another reason why some smokers quit smoking is because each smoke seems to be a waste of money at a time when each dime is valuable. The accumulated amount of cigarettes purchased is like your money burnt. There is certainly a lot more productive and healthier things to spend money on.

If one does not care about his or her own health, then he should think about the health damage he or she is doing to others who live near him or her. The fact is that second hand smoke is even more hazardous than first hand smoke. Second hand smoke stays a longer time in the air, invisible and unnoticed. Those who live around the area cannot escape breathing it in. Thus, smoking at home will also increase lung illnesses such as colds, and cancer to everyone living in the same house such as family and friends.

Aside from health reasons, it will also damage your look too. Smoking is proven to rob one's skin of its health. It makes one prone to pimples and other blemishes. In time, it will make one's skin age, wrinkle, sag, and wear out faster than it would normally do.

Personal reasons for quitting abound. Some people have been asked to quit by their loved ones or family, whom are of course worried as well as discomforted. Smokers who really want to quit may have had it with the ridiculous and vicious cycle of addiction. It really affect's one's self image.

It does not really matter what the main reason for quitting smoking is, the most important thing is to quit starting right here and right now. It might be tough for a start. It might even be tougher if the person is going through some issues right now since cigarettes are always used as a crutch to help you get on the day. But really, after this, you will find that you are a better person with a cleaner and clearer perspective.

Have A Good Reason To Quit Smoking Today? Share With Us On Our Free Online Quit Smoking Guide Now!

Stop Smoking Cigarettes

Other than trying to impress other fourteen year olds (assuming that you yourself are fourteen), there is no upside to smoking. And if you do no fit in that tight demographic, then it is time for you to stop smoking cigarettes. You are hurting yourself, your relationships, your productivity, and your wallet.

Nobody wins when you smoke, least of all you. No tobacco products are good, but all the extra chemicals that you find in cigarettes make them so much worse.

Smoking is a dangerous, filthy, and expensive habit. No one needs to tell you that. Ever seen a photo of a lung after years of smoking abuse? Ever dealt with the shortness of breath that is stinky to begin with? Giving it up may appear beyond your willpower. But there are lifelong smokers who stopped and then added years to their lives. How do they do it? First they make a commitment to ending the addiction. But that may not be enough.

Most likely, you will also need some help along the way. Quitting smoking is difficult enough, do not make it harder. There are both support groups and effective products that will help you to stop smoking cigarettes.

There is no shortage of methods to stop smoking cigarettes. You can also try the addiction therapy or a support group. You can also try one of many products available, including nicotine gum or patches. This will satisfy your love of nicotine without the harmful gasses that would fill your lungs. With time, you can wean yourself off these.

The latest product is the smokeless cigarette. This keeps the smoking sensation and the nicotine, but also gets rid of the noxious fumes. Not recommended except in extreme circumstance is a switch to an alternative smoking product, like cigars.

With all these products available, clearly someone wants you to stop. Maybe it's a parent, a spouse, a child, a grandchild. Maybe it's a friend who wants to see you grow old. Yes you picked up an addictive habit, but it is never too late to turn it around. Your health depends on it.

Don't sneak off and smoke, that's for teenagers. What are you, a rebel??!!! All the cool people are in the gyms, working on their aerobic capacity. You don't want to be left out. You want to be as cool as ever. Stop smoking cigarettes now. Don't let tobacco control your life.

Please Stop Smoking Cigarettes!

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Benefits Of Giving Up Smoking

I can't remember the number of times I tried to give up smoking (and of course, failed dismally) in the past. I knew all the benefits of giving up smoking it didn't seem to make any difference, I still continued. Over the years I'd tried different methods although I always felt that when it came to the crunch, if the frame of mind wasn't right then failure was inevitable.

From July 1997 to March 2009, I worked in the Middle East as a Field Service Engineer for communications and radar equipment. One of the radar stations I used to maintain was situated on an island (more like a rock) some 12 miles from the mainland. Access was mainly by boat and of course I dreaded this because once on the jetty, it was a climb of about 80 very steep, uneven steps up to the bottom of the rock. Then another 200 meters up a 30 degree path to the radar station itself at the top. What with the heat as well, I was struggling for breath at the top of the steps and sat it out for a few minutes wishing I knew how to give up smoking. Then came the climb up the path to the top, this was just as bad as the steps.

I thought a great deal during these excursions and was still giving it some thought on one of my leave periods back to England. I really wanted to give up smoking but knowing my history it still only remained a desire.

While on leave back in January of 2003, as with other leaves I paid visits to various arms of my family dotted around different parts of the country. One person I visited was a cousin and she greeted me with, "We all love you and want to see a lot more of you. Will you give up smoking?" Well, with everything else that had been going around in my head I do believe this was the one thing more that I needed to to put my mind in the right frame.

That was 29 January 2003 and after leaving my cousin's house, on my way home I dropped into the local chemist and bought a full course of patches (10 weeks worth) and it cost me a fortune. That was added incentive to stop smoking.

Since that day, I have never looked back and it's my belief that will power was the main driving force. The patches - well, I think they probably controlled mood swings I had suffered in the past when trying to stop.

Looking back, what did it for me was everything fell into place at the right time. My desire to stop was very strong and had been for some time, I saw some very sickly stop smoking advertisements on the TV and the final gel was that short request my cousin made. I will forever be in her debt.

Within a few months (or even weeks) I was reaping the benefits from it. A trip out to the rock in the middle of the sea saw me walking from the jetty to the radar station at the top without a stop. I seem to have lost a persistent cough I used to have. I always blamed it onto the last cold I had, just a hangover from that.

If I was asked to advise anyone, I think I tell them to really look for all the reasons you want to stop for and of course, the family theme is a very strong one too.