My name is Liam and I work at MidYorks as the Assistant Clinical Educator.
I started smoking at 13 years old and have been considering stopping smoking for a long time. I used to smoke on average 16-20 cigarettes a day. Working within a healthcare environment and seeing people unable to breathe due to smoking scared me and this helped me decide it was time to quit. I also have plans to adopt a young child and needed to stop as smoking can effect the adoption process for me.
I accessed support at work by attending the Pinderfields stop smoking service clinic, I rate their support highly and believe the support I received from the staff helped me to stay quit. I used Champix to help with my cravings, which was perfect for me although it did give me some strange dreams, it also made me feel a little sick and dizzy if I took it after 3pm so by taking it early I managed these small side effects.
My health has improved so much since quitting! I can breathe a lot better and with having asthma, I seemed to experience a horrible cough when smoking which has now gone. I feel much better and less sluggish since quitting. There are things I like about not smoking such as tasting my food and being able to walk long distances without getting out of breath. I have saved a lot of money too and have been able to treat myself to new clothes and holidays.
If I was to tell my younger self something about smoking I would say 'DO NOT DO IT, you will become skint, you'll and smell disgusting. Basically signing your own death certificate.'
