IF YOU ARE AMONG the struggling thousands who really want to give up smoking, quit many times only to light up again, here's hope.

Why do people trying to quit fail repeatedly when they really want to quit?

I was one of these people. I knew that I WANTED to stop smoking, and I tried everything: nicotine patches and gum, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, pills. But I just couldn't succeed. All smokers are addicted to nicotine. The method removes the need or desire to smoke. When you understand the smoking trap completely, you will need no willpower whatsoever to stop.

Smokers think they smoke to relieve stress, to concentrate, to relax and out of boredom. All these are illusions. Smoking does not do any of these things and when you truly understand this you can quit.

In 1983, Englishman Allen Carr went from 100 cigarettes a day to zero. Since then, Alen Carr's Easyway has cured about 10 million smokers worldwide.

The best rote of success on quitline programs is only 20-30 percent in the USA. How do you account for your 90 percent success rate?

Our 90 percent success rate is based on our unique three-month money back guarantee which we monitor. After three months, if you still haven't stopped smoking and decide not to stop, I refund your money with no questions asked. To date, 97 percent of my clients have succeeded in becoming happy non-smokers! The problem with quitline programs is that most of them endorse Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT). You can't cure addiction to nicotine by giving the addict nicotine.

How tough is it to give up the evil weed?

Many just become "secret smokers" (because you tell everyone you have already stopped), steal cigarettes from friends, dig through ash trays for cigarette butts that weren't completely smoked, chew breath mints all day, are constantly on the lookout for when and where the next cigarette can be smoked and "know" they will never be able to quit. If it weren't so miserable - I've been there! - it might even be funny.

With all our efforts to stamp out smoking in Singapore, from high taxes and very restricted public areas to annual campaigns, we still have many young people starting the habit. Why?

All young people start out smoking because people around them are already smoking and with the belief that they could never become hooked. I started smoking at 17. When I was 34 I realized to my horror that had been smoking for 17 years. I don't know a single person who has quit because of those efforts. But smoking bans will at least protect the health of non-smokers.

How important is the rising cost of a pack of cigarettes to a smoker?

The truth is that a pack a day smoker spends at least $50,000 in his/her lifetime on cigarettes. Money has the least importance in smokers' minds.

Name some famous people who quit using this method.

Anthony Hopkins, Ellen DeGeneres, Ashton Kutcher and also Richard Branson of Virgin fame who pays for his staff to attend the clinics.