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Philip, 35 from Monaghan began smoking 17 years ago, smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
He had tried to quit smoking in the past, quitting for 6 weeks at a time.
This year, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Philip decided that this could be a great opportunity to stop smoking for good.
When asked about what was different this times round, he said:
“My determination was a big difference this time. I also thought this was a chance to take something positive from a stressful situation.
I used the Quit service and that really helped. I had regular check in calls with a Quit advisor for the first few weeks and I recently had my three month check in call.”
Phillip signed up for daily Quit emails. “These really helped keep me motivated. Every day I got an email telling me how many days I had been quit, how much money I had saved and how many cigarettes I hadn’t smoked. It made a big difference.”
NRT also played a role. “I used a combination of patches and lozenges which really helped with cravings. I had used patches before when I tried to quit but combining them with lozenges really worked for me this time. I kept the patch and a scissors by my bed so that I was ready to put one on first thing each morning. I also made sure to have a bottle of water beside the bed to drink from when I woke up and that helped too.”
Philp has noticed that his breathing has improved. “I used to be very wheezy, especially in the morning. That’s not a problem anymore for me and I have a lot more energy”
We asked Philip about his advice for anyone who wants to quit. “ I would definitely recommend that people ring the Quitline or use Quit.ie. It will make a big difference. NRT is also important. Sometimes people are wary to use it but it really helps and when you used it properly. It helped me so much and now I no longer smoke or need to use NRT.
