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 85 • 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.