I started smoking while I was living in Australia. It was in the days when smoking was socially acceptable, in fact it was lauded as the thing to do in "cool" society. Television and billboard advertising of cigarettes and tobacco products was rife. Many people will remember "Marlboro man" – rough, tough and exuding manly appeal; they will remember the Consulate ads with the trickling streams and idyllic locations where a couple tripped along giving the impression that all you needed for romance was a whiff on a menthol cigarette; or the relaxation afforded by a Hamlet cigar. Who can forget the strong messages sent out by all this advertising – and it was all endorsed by the government.
My own first experience of smoking was actually a cigar. This was rapidly followed by the purchase of a packet of cigarettes and the rest is history. Thirty-plus years further on, I was still smoking. My cigarette consumption had, of course, escalated and the conservative 10-a-day had now been replaced by a 50-a-day habit. Health-wise, I was a walking time-bomb.
It was the health issues that began to concern me. The propaganda that had led me to believe that smoking was a good thing to do had changed, and was now describing the harm caused by smoking. Added to that were the inconveniences that smoking now presented. No longer could I relax after dinner in a restaurant – I had to trail outside to find a corner out of the wind and the rain to have a few uncomfortable puffs on my cigarette. I chose not to visit a cinema or a theatre – a show was far too long to last without having a cigarette. Even my progress through the UK conducting my own theatre demonstrations was fraught with difficulty for my tour manager, who always had to secure a quiet corner – somewhere where I could nip out and have a cigarette before a show, during the interval and, of course, after a show.
I had been talking about giving up smoking for quite a while but had not yet plucked up the courage, until one day, I received a request from a television company to take part in the television show Celebrity Quitters. This was my opportunity! I was given full medical support and could take advantage of the services of a counsellor. I was introduced to nicotine replacement therapy in the form of inhalators, patches, chewing gum and nasal sprays.
For me, the nicotine patches and the inhalators worked. While I was receiving a constant "hit" of nicotine from the patches, the inhalator fulfilled the smoking "ritual" – the hand to mouth action that is an integral part of the smoking experience. I persevered on a day-to-day basis. One 24-hours stint leads to another 24 hours without a cigarette. Before you know it, you have achieved the first week. It isn't easy – in fact, it's incredibly hard to overcome the desire to throw the bits of plastic away and light up a real cigarette.
There are trigger times during the day for smokers – the first one being when you get out of bed and have that first cup of tea or coffee. Every time the thought of a cigarette came in to my mind, I would pick up my inhalator and have a couple of puffs or take a drink of water, or go and do something completely different to take my mind off my craving. I also found that putting the money I would have spent on cigarettes into a jar was an incentive. I still do this and after three months will reward myself with something. I also gleefully think of the tax I have deprived the government of by not buying packets of cigarettes.
I have been a non-smoker now for 11 weeks and I am still going strong. Giving up smoking has been one of the biggest and most important challenges of my life. I have done it, but it was because I wanted to do it and not because anybody told me I must do it. The time was right for me. All the scare tactics in the world didn't work on me – all the pictures of diseased lungs on cigarette packets, all the television advertising, nothing. I had to reach that point where I wanted it for myself.
I have reaped so many benefits through not smoking – my health is better, I can breathe properly, I sleep better, I don't have the awful smokers' cough I was known for, my clothes don't smell of smoke and I can enjoy a cup of coffee or a meal in a café or restaurant and feel sorry for the poor smokers huddled outside in the cold. I am pretty sure that I will never smoke again.
It is unfortunate that the government uses stealth tactics in an attempt to price cigarettes out of reach of ordinary folk by raising taxes by a few pence at a time. If they truly want people to give up smoking, they should impose a complete ban on smoking anywhere at any time.
And what of the hapless smoker? What if he or she does not want to give up smoking and is quite happy to do so, regardless of the health hazards involved? Do these people truly exist? Every smoker I have ever spoken to has told me that, at some point, they have tried to give up smoking, or they are considering giving up smoking. Nicotine is a powerful drug and most addicts, like me, have to reach a point where they make their own choice about giving up cigarettes. I wish them well and truly hope that they achieve their desire.
And no way was their house as old as 1900.
