Employees

Employees

Employees

STOPTOBER: A Personal Story

10th October, 2024

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This month we are sharing the STOPTOBER campaign, a nationwide NHS campaign aimed at helping individuals quit smoking. This is the next initiative as part of our ongoing Wellbeing Strategy Group 2024 plan.

If you are a smoker, smoking cessation is one of the most significant steps you can take to improve your health, and STOPTOBER is designed to provide the support and resources you need to make this positive change.

What is STOPTOBER?

STOPTOBER is a month-long NHS campaign that encourages smokers to quit for 28 days. Research shows that if you can stop smoking for 28 days, you are five times more likely to quit for good. The campaign offers practical support, expert advice, and a sense of community to help you stay on track.

During the month, we will be sharing further resources, along with some personal stories from some of our colleagues, about their paths to quitting, and beyond.

This week Hugh Reynolds, Supply Chain Compliance Officer, shares with us his personal story. He started smoking at a very early age and finally after many years and with support from the NHS Hugh managed to quit smoking cigarettes. Here is his story…

By Hugh Reynolds.

I always remember the first ever cigarette I had.

Being born in the 1950s smoking was the norm; my father was a smoker and continued to the day he passed.   Back then everyone smoked!

We were visiting our grandmother’s house and across the road lived was one of her friends, an old lady with a budgie, and she offered me and my brother a “drag on her fag”. We both had a go and subsequently coughed so much I threw up! I was about 5 years old then!  

Moving on a couple of years until I was about 8 or 9, people all around smoking, dad smoking in the house, me and my friends thought we will have a go, back then shop keepers would let you buy single fags. We went to the park, climbed a tree and sat up there smoking and coughing till we were dizzy, and then sick. This became a regular thing. And so, it went on, smoking behind the bike sheds, to and from school, out playing in the evening.

Then came the 70s. I joined the army, freedom to smoke anywhere, ashtray by the side of the bed, falling asleep with a fag in your hand. Fast forward to the 80s. I got married, had kids, still smoked but I thought I would have a go at giving up, as smoking around kids back then wasn’t the best. My then mother-in-law thought it would be a good idea pay for me to try Hypnosis to give up. I went for the session, which didn’t work so back to smoking. I tried acupunctured, that worked for about 6 weeks, then stopped and went back to smoking.  And so, it goes on. My mindset was: “I just didn’t want to give up.”

All this time, up until the late 90s my job role was driving HGVs, mixers, tippers and you got into a habit, truck was loading, fag, cup of tea, fag, going to site, fag, not actually needing one for any reason, just the habit. When I came off the trucks and went into the office you could still smoke so….. phone rings, fag, cup of tea, fag again, nothing stopping me.

Moving on to the noughties 

It started to get more of anti-social to smoke indoors, in pubs etc., but I still found somewhere outside to have one.  In the early 2000s I briefly tried one of the “quit smoking drugs” Zyban, unfortunately they made me so cranky my wife begged me to start up smoking again.

Roll up-Roll up- Roll up! 

I moved on to rolling my own, great result, ‘The more you smoked the more you saved’ was my motto and that stuck with me until one day in July 2019 I went to the doctors for a routine blood test and the conversation went:

Nurse said: “Do you smoke?”, I said:” Yes”, Nurse said:” Do you want to give up?”, I said: “Yes, let’s give a go, I am fed up with smelling like an old ashtray.”  She went on to talk about the stop smoking campaign they have at the NHS and what support they provide throughout the smoking cessation period, what products they provide on prescription and that I would have regular meetings with the nurse to see how things are going. So, I thought (still not 100% wanting to quit) let’s give it a try.

DAY 1

11th August 2019: The first day without an actual cigarette, what was I going to with myself? How am I going to cope? How am I going to sleep, eat, drink tea, without a cigarette in my hand? PANIC!  However, the NHS came to my rescue. Before the day of stopping, I had a prescription which included patches and a nicotine puffer to use when you had a craving. I was skeptical about the puffer, but it really helped. Day 1 led to Day 2 and so on. Yes, it was tough to start but with the regular visits to the nurse and encouragement from my wife, I got there.

Present day

I haven’t had a cigarette since the Day 1 of quitting, however, I do vape. Do I get a buzz from vaping? No. Is it still a habit? -yes, is it still a bad habit – the jury is out on that at the moment, but from an NHS point of view, you are still a ‘Nonsmoker’.

 Do I still need the nicotine hit? No. Why am I doing it then? I don’t know. “Throw it away then?” I could do and I probably will do at some point but after so many years of smoking cigarettes, I am proud of what I have achieved, after those 6 decades.

 If reading my story resonates with any of the smokers out there, have a think, have a go and give the cigarettes up, you know it makes sense!!!!

Support and Resources

STOPTOBER provides a variety of resources to help you on your journey to becoming smoke-free. Here are some key tools and support networks available from the STOPTOBER Website: https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/

On our UK News website HERE you can find some STOPTOBER resources for printing and sharing on our workplace notice boards and wellbeing notice boards. Click the links below to access and download.

STOPTOBER is an excellent opportunity to take control of your health and quit smoking for good. With the right support, resources, and determination, you can achieve a smoke-free life.

Let’s make this October the month we all breathe easier together!