Steven had been smoking for 21 years before he became smoke free and would smoke between 15 – 20 cigarettes a day. Following a surgical procedure to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm, he felt compelled to protect his health as much as possible and instinctively knew the best thing he could do is quit smoking.
What makes Steven’s quit attempt so remarkable is that he did so whilst being homeless and facing the substantial barriers to quitting that come with this extremely challenging situation. In spite of this, he successfully became smoke free by focusing on his strong reason to quit, which was his health, using support systems like homeless shelter services, having an expert health improvement practitioner by his side and having easy access to nicotine replacement products.
After expressing a desire to quit, Steven’s homeless shelter service put him in contact with our friendly wellbeing team. They arranged a stop smoking appointment with Steph, one of our expert health improvement practitioners, and it has been a success story all the way…
Steph provided Steven with specialised, one-to-one ongoing support, offering encouragement and understanding of the nicotine addiction process. Together they developed a personalised quit plan that included a quit date, strategies to cope with cravings, withdrawal symptoms, and behavioural change support.
To further assist Steven with his quit attempt, Steph talked through all the nicotine replacement products available. Of all the options, he decided to quit smoking with the aid of vaping. To get him started, Steven was provided with a free vaping kit and 5 weeks’ worth of vaping fluid. Steven said: “Vaping was brilliant. I really took to it and it completely put me off smoking cigarettes. A lot of the time I just like to have something to do with my hands and vaping satisfies that for me. Vaping feels so much cleaner and smells nice. I really like the blueberry and ice cherry flavour. I don’t think I’ll ever smoke again. I remember being stood next to my friend who was having a cigarette and I had to move away because I couldn’t stand the smell! I didn’t realise just how much you can smell smoke on other people. It’s horrible.”
Now smoke free, Steven expressed his utter relief that he’s free from the nightmare of being addicted to tobacco:
“Vaping is so much cheaper than smoking. It was such a struggle to buy even the cheapest pouch of tobacco. I’d even resort to picking up cigarette ends off the streets and that’s not good at all. I was coughing all the time as well but that’s gone now. I’m so glad I don’t smoke anymore.
Every morning, I’d wake up and the first thing I’d do is roll a cigarette. Now, I wake up and I don’t even think about smoking. I can go for hours and hours without vaping and can comfortably be around others who smoke and not crave a cigarette.”
Steven is now extending the time between vapes and slowly reducing the nicotine strength of his vaping fluids.
Steven expressed how much he valued the support he received from Steph, saying: “It helped having a stop smoking adviser. Steph has been absolutely brilliant; I can ask her anything and she responds with cheerful answers. She understood what I was going through and knew my struggles. After not smoking for two weeks, she let me breathe into the breathalyser (Cardon Monoxide breath test) and it made me feel so proud when she said I have the same levels of carbon monoxide as a non smoker. Just hearing those words “non smoker” made me so happy.”
Steven has proved that smoke free success can be achieved in even the most challenging of circumstances. He has shown that quitting can lead to many benefits, such as feeling healthier, breathing better, and being free form the burden of forking out a small fortune every week to feed a habit that provides no genuine crutch or stress relief.
If you would like advice and support to quit smoking, like Steven, contact the One You Plymouth team today, and we can help you take the first steps to becoming smoke-free. Call 01752 437177 or email [email protected]