AFTER three decades have passed, you'd think only an idiot would remember the exact day on which he gave up smoking cigarettes. But, 12,385 days on, I am that man.
My saving grace is that I know I would have been a bigger idiot not to have done my best to stop. I had nicotine-stained fingers, smelt like a workhouse chimney and heaven knows what was happening in my lungs.
Don’t get me wrong. I have great sympathy for smokers who want to give up but can’t beat the addiction. It’s a powerful drug.
But surely common sense surely tells you that you should want to quit if you could. Why ignore so much evidence about the horrible damage smoking does to your health and life expectancy? You’d want to pack it in for your family’s sake, wouldn’t you?
Today (Wednesday, March 10)is No Smoking Day when all those who make grim jokes such as saying, “I’d give up but I’m no quitter” should recognise that damaging their health is no laughing matter.
This is a great time to try to pack it in when so many others will be in the same boat. And friends and family should do their best to encourage them... and try to tolerate their faults while they wean themselves off.
If common sense fails to make you try to stop, shock tactics might work.
Just think of that foul Viz comic top tip. I think it involved being told that, in every single packet, the filter end of just one cigarette had been inserted up someone’s fat backside.
And you’ll never know which one it is.
You’re right. Too gross. I’ll shut up.
So go on then. Don’t mind me. Have a fag…
