'I smoked 40 a day for nearly 40 years'

I started smoking when I left school – it was just what we all did. People lit up everywhere you went, even on the bus, and I worked on building sites where not smoking was unheard of.
 
I had a 40-a-day habit for knocking on 40 years. My wife came from a no-smoking family and it was a culture shock to be with someone who smoked quite heavily all the time. She hated it and in the end made me smoke outside. My daughter gave me a harder time because when she went into nursing she saw the damage smoking did.
 
The person who gave me the most grief was my boss, Phil Collins. I’ve worked for Collins Design and Build for 33 years and Phil nagged me more than anyone else. He's a rally driver and thinks smoking is a horrible habit.
 
I did try to quit half a dozen times over the years, but if you fail a few times you think, I'm not going to try just to fail again. Why put myself through the torture? So you give up before you’ve started, really.
 

It dawned on me why I was in hospital...

Then, last August, I suffered two heart attacks and frightened everyone to death – myself included. Every doctor and nurse asked if I was a smoker and it dawned on me why I was in hospital.
 
So I thought, I’ve got a wife, two children and two grandchildren on the way – it's time to do something about this. I could ignore a smoker's cough, but I couldn’t ignore this. It was now or never.
 

I really needed help to quit

I was really serious about quitting, but knew I'd never manage it without professional help. That's where the Herefordshire Stop Smoking Service came in. I went to a lady called Caron Cooke. When I first went to see her she did a carbon monoxide (CO) breath test on me and it went through the roof. It was unbelievable. It was great to see that the CO was gone from my body when I became a non-smoker!
 
I was given nicotine patches, starting on a strong dose for six weeks before moving on to a medium dose. I also used an inhalator because I didn't know what to do with my hands.
 
It wasn't easy, but having Caron's support was the clincher. She's a very, very nice lady and very supportive. She really understands what I'm going through. She did a CO test on me every week and would have known instantly if I'd smoked, so I'd have been letting down her, my whole family and most of all, myself.
 
For me, it was the discipline of going to see Caron that helped so much. I was doing it properly. The stop smoking people understand what it takes. If you do as they tell you over a period of time, it makes it easier.
 
Everyone says that giving up is hard – well, it isn't if you have this help.
 

My grandchildren will never see me smoke

I visit the stop smoking clinic weekly or fortnightly – it's a good incentive to stay stopped. My smoker's cough has disappeared and my sense of smell has returned. For the first time, I can smell the roses I grow.
 
Christmas was the hardest because I was invited to parties where normally, I'd smoke. But I began to notice instead how many people don't smoke. It's seen as anti-social these days, and that really helps. On building sites, even big, burly builders don't like it.
 
So my grandchildren will never see Grandad with a cigarette in his hand. And I'll always be really grateful for all the help I've had to quit smoking for good.