Stories of residents who have stopped smoking with the help of the Lambeth Stop Smoking Team.
Tracey
Tracey from Brixton smoked 40-a-day for 25 years. She had unsuccessfully tried to quit several times before, but managed to give it up for good after attending the specialist smokers’ clinic at the YMCA.
She found it was easy to join the clinic, was given lots of information beforehand and was then offered the option of one-to-one or group sessions. Tracey chose to attend group sessions, as she enjoyed having the support of other quitters, and is still in touch with her ‘group buddy.’ The clinic staff were friendly and supportive, and as many of them were ex-smokers themselves “they could really understand what I was going through.”
“I really recommend this to anyone who wants to give up, I couldn’t have done it without them. I even rang my GP afterwards and got him to tell more people about the stop smoking service, as I was so impressed."
Lorna
Lorna is the Community Outreach Worker at Loughborough Primary School. She had smoked for 30 years and decided she needed to give up since she initiated the stop smoking sessions! Lorna experienced a feeling of bereavement when she quit: “I felt as though I would never be able to go out again, laugh again or have
fun again, but I was wrong! I feel
much better than I ever did, and I have even more fun during an evening out, knowing that I can resist the temptation and still enjoy myself”.
Kim
Kim had smoked since she was a teenager but recently noticed smoking was damaging her health and that of her children too. Kim had tried to quit before, but she succeeded this time thanks to the extra emotional support from her fellow quitters.
Sultan
Sultan had thought about quitting but had never had the courage or motivation to do so. He did not know about the local services available for quitters, and thought the only way to get help was through his GP, and that did not appeal to him. With encouragement from his wife and son, Sultan joined the sessions at the school. His family and the rest of the group at the school were a great source of encouragement, support and inspiration and he was able to quit after using patches for only a short time.
Elise and Phil
Elise and Phil from Streatham had both smoked heavily for 15 years, but quit in December 2003 with the help of Lambeth Stop Smoking Service, and haven’t smoked since!
Because of Elise’s pregnancy, both Elise and Phil saw it as a good time to quit. Elise was referred to Lambeth’s pregnancy counsellor, Julie Browne, by her midwife. Both Elise and Phil were apprehensive at first as they felt they wouldn’t be able to give up for good, but found Julie’s help invaluable.
Both found the first few weeks tough, but neither finds smoking tempting anymore; they even survived a New Years Eve party full of smokers!
“We really like the fact that our house, clothes and car no longer smell of cigarettes.”
Loughborough School Quitters
Demand from parents and staff to quit smoking resulted in a club running at Loughbough Primary School.
There is more help available than you think.
