Hester was 19 and a heavy smoker, getting though at least a packet a day, and over 3 packets on weekends.  She’d smoked since she was 15 and had started smoking to look cool.  Despite loving everything about smoking, and not realising how much she reeked, she made the decision to give up.

So, at 19 she quit. These were her reasons:

It wasn’t cool.  She remembers a work colleague saying ‘here’s Hester, she’s always got a smoke on her’, but she didn’t want to be defined as a smoker.

It was really bad for her health. Once she was asked by a homeless man for a cigarette, handing one over he tried it but decided hers were too strong. This made her think; “I’m a 19 year old girl and I smoke cigarettes that are even too strong for a tough street man…”  Hearing this she could see the future health risks.

She wanted to be a good role model for others, and couldn’t stand the idea of not being one.  She looked in the mirror and wanted to fight for her pride and be a person who doesn’t have an addiction.

This is how she quit.

“I used my pride, as I had no money for patches.  I really liked the action and feeling of smoking, so I replaced it by allowing myself 5 minutes at a time before doing it. I’d say ‘just 5 minutes, just 5 minutes, I’d never say the whole morning, then I’d distract myself and suddenly it would be 10 or 15 minutes had gone by.  Then I’d say to myself again, just 5 minutes, just 5 minutes.’  This worked and I could get longer and longer until I was quit.

I also put aside the $89 a week I usually spent on cigarettes – $200 if it was today- towards buying a stack of music CDs.  At the end of the week, I’d spend it on a present to myself by going to the music store in the mall and buying all the new music.

That was 24 years ago.  I’d look 20 years older and not fit.  I got an aggressive breast cancer a few years ago and if I had of been a smoker I would not have survived because I went into it as a for healthy fit women.  I can say to my kids I don’t have yellow teeth, stinky hands and reeking clothes and can’t taste food.  I’d look at them and it would remind me of what I could be missing.”