Having smoked pretty much since I was 15, this giving up lark could be a big issue for me. I am trying to push aside any negative thoughts and focus on the positives, as well as the fact that if I dont, I cannot give my sister a kidney.

I spoke with my doctor about it, he recommended giving up gradually, but also gave me the Smoking Cessation Clinic number. I have some points to make on this Doc…should you be reading:

If you research it on the internet the consensus is don’t attempt to do it gradually. Someone posted a blog which seemed to capture the sense of it….if you really hate someone and they smoke, convince them to cut down, to give up very gradually, that way they will the longest period of suffering nicotine craving and they are unlikely to overcome the addiction.

The second point is that the cessation clinic number is really the NHS National Smoking helpline. So you call up, speak to a lovely lady, who asks you a barrage of questions and it takes about ten minutes. At the end of which, she has recorded all the information she needs for the NHS statistics and she says, now you need to call a local number to speak to the real cessation clinic people. Doh. That just gives a smoker another hoop to not jump through. I wonder how many give up giving up at that point, before they have even started. I know it was some weeks from me calling that number before I called the local one, and I have some real motivation for doing this.