Their Story: Kris Waller from Gillingham quit a 50 year cigarette addiciton with the support of Medway Stop Smoking Service. Advisers helped him become smokefree after smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
Day 1
....and bringing to an end an addiction which began at the age of 9.
Having smoked for all of his adult life - except for a few unsuccessful quit attempts in the 1970's - Kris made the decision to quit for good four months ago and hasn't looked back since.
"At first I was sceptical about going along to the sessions as I wasn't keen on somebody telling me how to run my life. But it wasn't like that at all - I felt as though I was among friends and the advisers kept the sessions light hearted".
However, Kris is under no illusions about the challenge of staying smokefree. "The biggest danger for ex-smokers is complacency - if you've quit before then you fall into the trap of kidding yourself you can have a couple of cigarettes and quit again easily. The advisers at the service understand exactly what you are going through - probably because some of them are ex-smokers themselves. My wife is delighted as she's never smoked herself. I never smoked in the house be even having a cigarette out of the window meant the house stank.
When asked would he recommened the service to others thinking about stopping he said: "Wholeheartedly. The best advice I could give is don't try and quit on your own. You'll never know if the service works for you unless you give it a go!"
Kris is now a volunteer with the service, helping other smokers acheive their goal's of quitting for good.
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