I gave up smoking over two months ago after having smoked for over 40 years and on top of it very heavily at that because most days I would go through nearly two packets of cigarettes and if we went out in the evenings then it would be at least three packets.

Can you imagine how much harm that was doing to my health and at the same time at € 3.00 a packet and now even more and I smoked at least two packets a day, it was probably costing my pocket at least € 210 a month and in this economic crisis € 210 is quite a lot of money.

During the first few days I have to admit that I missed smoking quite a lot and I also have to admit that I had one in the morning and one in the evening, then after about four days I got rid of the one in the morning but still kept the evening puff. This, at the end of the day, wasn't helping me very much in my quest to quit smoking and on top of it it even ended up making me feel quite dizzy so after about a week I got rid of the evening puff as well.

I survived and continued for the next month by using nicorette chewing gum. I first used 4mg and then eventually I reduced my intake down to 2 mg. Your are allowed to take up to 10 a day but at the beginning I was having quite a bit more, in fact I almost had to have a piece of gum in my mouth all the time for the first week. But at the end of the day no matter how many pieces you have a day can be as harmful as smoking. And In the end your body tells you that you have had too much as you get hiccups if you take too much gum or chew it too fast.

I am at this precise moment in time still relying on my nicorette of 2mg but there are many times during the day already when I don't have a chewing gum in my mouth at all for more than two hours and so it is already proving that I am now no longer so addicted to them. My next stage will be to switch from nicorette chewing gum to normal peppermint gum which I think will happen during the next few weeks. (a little plus point for any older women that are reading this, or men who want to look good for that matter, is that with all this chewing my jawline is firming up , my skin is looking much plumper and I have already been given a few compliments to say that I am looking very well these days).

I feel deep in my heart that this time it is going to be it. I am really and truly going to give up smoking and this time it will be for good and forever and I also realise that I will never be able to take even one puff of a cigarette ever again because then I would undoubtedly slide back onto the slippery slope.

I say all this because about 12 years ago I had, or so I thought, become a non smoker. I gave it up and vowed never to smoke again as a promise to my father who had died with only 71 years of age simply because he smoked and drank heavily throughout the whole course of is life. I had been so touched when he had, during the last weeks of his life, when he was already so frail and delicate, given me a big hug and had whispered into my ear  'I wish you wouldn't smoke any more'.  He said it exactly like that, as a wish of his, but never an order because that was how he always was - a very gentle man.

When he died I vowed that I would do it for him but I couldn't do it until all the funeral bits were all over as it was just too stressful a time, but three weeks after the funeral I did it. 

Unfortunately about 5 years later when I felt or thought that I was out of danger I did take that one puff during a new year's eve party when I was feeling just a bit too merry to stay true to any promise and so I fell back into the trap again after only having a few puffs - the next day I had bought a packet of cigarettes.  All the efforts and sacrifices that I had done just five years before had all gone to waste just because of a few puffs on a stupid cigarette.  It just shows that the amount of addictive ingredients that they put into cigarettes must be quite enormous!

So here I am again at this stage, with the help of my father to do it again, and this time I just have to do it for good. I have to control my life and not let cigarettes control it for me.

One last point that I would like to make to any women who are trying to mentalise themselves to give up is that from surveys that I have read the thing that hinders women the most from giving up smoking is the fear that they are going to put on weight which unfortunately invariably happens if the correct measures aren't taken.  So to all of you who are facing this dilemma you have to go on a strict diet and a daily exercise routine at the same time as you give up smoking, like I have done and I have instead of putting on weight lost 2 kilos - not a lot I know - but the main thing is that I haven't put on!

Imagine how much healthier you are going to be without inhaling all the toxic ingredients that cigarettes contain, doing daily exercise to make you feel fitter and more energetic, restoring your blood pressure to a normal figure, seeing how the contours of your face tighten up and how the complexion of your face changes from an ashen grey into a much rosier colour and the best of all is that you will probably have lengthened your one and only precious life by quite a few years.  We all have to go some day, I know that for sure, but it really comes down to how we go, and after having seen my poor father choking on his own fluids of his lungs and trying to breath with the sound of a coffee perculator I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

Good luck to anyone who is just about to do it and keep on telling yourself that you are going to be stronger than a stupid white stick filled with poison that you set the end of on fire!