insideKENT Magazine Issue 43 - October 2015 | Page 85
your motives, and ask them to check with you
on a regular basis to find out how you are during
the process.
3. What are your smoking triggers? Try to
identify them (perhaps you enjoy a cigarette after
a meal, or with your morning coffee. Maybe it’s
your habit to have one whilst waiting for your
train, or when you’re bored). Once you’re aware
of them, it will be easier to ignore them.
4. Organise some activities and days out that
mean you can’t smoke. The cinema, a restaurant
with non-smoking friends, a day out with the
kids…
5. Speak to your GP if you are on any
medication. Some medicines are designed
specifically for smokers, and yours may need to
be changed when you’re not having your
cigarettes anymore.
Prepare before 1st October, and you’ll be ready
and raring to go by the time Stoptober comes
around. And just in case you weren’t sure whether
you should quit, the British Lung Foundation has
these facts about smoking to persuade you:
• Smoking can lead to cancer, lung disease, heart
and circulation diseases, stomach and duodenal
ulcers, erectile dysfunction, infertility,
osteoporosis, cataracts and eye disorders,
mouth and dental infections, complications in
pregnancy, and more
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• It’s the nicotine that makes cigarettes so very
addictive and it’s the most well-known chemical
related to smoking, but tobacco smoke actually
contains over 4,000 different chemicals and
poisons, and more than 70 of them can cause
cancer on their own, let alone combined with
dozens of other carcinogens.
• Passive smoking is breathing smoke from
someone else’s cigarette, and is just as harmful
as smoking itself, especially for children (it can
cause them to develop asthma and other lung
problems, and it leaves their immune systems
damaged. It also increases the risk of cot death;
babies lungs aren’t fully formed, and the smoke
can damage them irreparably). Around 10,000
people die each year in the UK due to passive
smoking.
If you feel you are ready to quit, for your health
and the health of your loved ones, sign up for
the challenge at www.nhs.uk/smokefree.