Yes, I feel a lot more, honestly, I can actually breathe. Because before this I never realised I had short breath. So now I can feel it. My breath is coming back in a much better way. I am able to, you know, I have full breaths, almost full breaths again. And, and also the acidity has gone. I don’t have any more acidity. And also I should say I’m less irritable. I used to be really irritable, very fast, when I was smoking I used to get irritable. I’m less irritable. Able to think in a more relaxed, and a clear manner. Not jumping to conclusions or getting the hang of you. So a little bit more clarity I would say now, in the thinking process.

Is one of these funny things, that whenever, whenever you say you’ve given up smoking to somebody I often find its non smokers that say this, they’re saying, Oh don’t you feel better in yourself? And it’s like, well no, no, not really [laughs]. My wallet feels a bit better, but other than that I never really sort of noticed any difference. I think because possibly because it was a gradual thing. I think I did notice going, I’d be less, slightly less out of breath going upstairs perhaps but I didn’t feel any sort of sense of well being necessarily. But I definitely know it now, since I’ve, you know, I’ve given up for a long time. Sort of intermittent bits of exercise here and there were a lot easier in When it’s cold outside as well, that’s another thing, a positive impact you notice. Your chest doesn’t hurt as much breathing in, because you notice the cold air when you breathe in as a smoker, you feel it on your lungs, on your chest, and that’s much less so. In fact it doesn’t, it doesn’t really happen now and I think it was , and that’s, that’s a massive positive effect. And as well, the cold thing as well. I think I still, I think I still do get the odd, the odd chesty cold might hang around a little bit longer than may be normally it would if I hadn’t smoked, spent about fifteen years smoking, I suspect. But, but it’s nowhere near as pronounced as it was when I was smoking. And it was ultimately, you know, it is a positive thing.

I used to find I used to do the kiting and I used to be able to run around the field with my kite, getting up. As a smoker there was this slippery hill that getting up the hills I’d be out of breath. After a couple of weeks of not smoking I was getting up that hill, and I’d be panting, but I wouldn’t be out of breath. So that was the first sort of time, I actually thought smoking is absolutely, not smoking does, you know, I feel better for not smoking. So I was sort of aware straight away of the benefits. That I, the bad things about not smoking is… I remember sort of there would be times when you know, people would feel powerful for actually smoking. You know, a couple of my friends that didn’t smoke would excuse themselves so they could satisfy their craving for a smoke, I don’t smoke it’s great.

At times I wanted a cigarette as our friends used to come into my home, you know a non smoker, or I am a non smoker and I’d be a non-smoker for the rest of my life so that’s why I don’t know I can’t remember if the hypnotist has worked or not because that phrase has stuck in my head.

You said you felt so much better. What have you noticed?

First of all when I’m laying in bed, theres none of the rattling on my chest. I’m sure I almost used to feel my blood pressure, I presume it was really high from smoking, you lay in bed and you could almost feel your heart pounding in your ears, so all of that’s gone. When I walk my dog, I can now run [laughs]. Not sort of miles, but before hand, I mean I’d just be puffing and panting after sort of few steps, but now I can run quite a long way with the dog.

It’s, I’ve got grandchildren, so it’s quite nice. I haven’t got to worry about having a full load of mints before they come, and I can cuddle then knowing that I’m not making them smell of smoke. Which is actually quite important to me, although I didn’t realise how much I smelt until I stopped smoking, and I now smell it on other people. I can go in a room where someone who’s had a cigarette, if they go into a room and then I follow them into the room, I can still smell it, even though they smoked outside.

My husband smokes and I can, if I’m coming down the path and hes in the back garden having a cigarette, I can actually smell the stale smell. I can smell it in the toilet [laughs] wherever hes been in a small space, I can smell it. Which as I say I didn’t notice before. You can be walking along the road, and you know that somebody has been standing there having a cigarette a minute beforehand.

So it’s nice to know that I can have the children near me, and not worry about me smelling for them really. I can smell the shampoo on my hair still. So when I wash my hair it sort of still smells of shampoo a few days later, whereas beforehand I couldn’t smell anything.

Yes, well instantly. Instantly you feel free as you, as you stubbing out your last cigarette. The sense of accomplishment and freedom is wonderful and the relief. Just the biggest feeling is the relief that you haven’t got to do it anymore. Because it’s like being a slave. You have to do it. This pack of cigarettes. You have to at certain points during the day, go and have one. You have to find time for them. They’re quite demanding. And they don’t demand anything from you once you’ve stopped. I wouldn’t go to the cinema because a film that was two hours long, well I’d be thinking but I need to have a cigarette in the middle and you can see people nipping out between courses at a restaurant for a cigarette and they’re not relaxed. They think it’s relaxing them, but they’re not relaxing, because they’re rushing out to go and smoke.

Yeah, the relief, and when I look at, even now, twelve years later, and I’ll notice someone in the street who’s smoking and I just think, thank God I haven’t got to do that anymore. And I still feel it now. Oh. It’s amazing. I probably didn’t do much exercise, however, because, when I was a smoker, because I just thought, what’s the point. I’m a smoker, you know, that’s the worst thing I can do to my body, or one of the worst things I can do to my body. Why try and be healthier and eat healthy and do exercise when I’m a smoker. What’s the point? So it made me, it had I don’t know, it had this ripple effect, it made me make bad choices in other areas of my life, kind of. You know, yeah.

I think again, I didn’t, I never had that sort of oh it’s going to be, you know, people keep saying this thing about oh you know, it makes you feel so much better, immediately and stuff. But I do remember feeling like it was something I just didn’t want to tell me, people that discovered that you like I remember one time I discovered that I could just drink so much more alcohol without feeling hung over. And it started to feel like Wonder woman. You know, so, go out at night, drink all this beer and wake up and feel really good in the morning. And I thought okay, so actually these hangovers were sort of quite, quite a lot of it was nicotine induced rather than, you know, just the alcohol, but then that wears off after a while, which was a strange phenomenon. That you don’t have that any more in the same well in what my experience it wore off. So I think that was a really positive [laughs] it made me feel wow this is really good. This is good. Not that, you know, I’m advocating and then drinking a lot. But you suddenly realised just what it was doing to you.

And I suppose, as I say I used to, I mean I was really, really prone to getting throat infections and tonsillitis and all that sort of thing, and I think that, I could always tell that that’s no longer such a problem if I didn’t smoke.

It’s great. Apart from weight. It’s great to think I don’t smell. And I can smell my own perfume which you can’t before [laugh] and my hair doesn’t smell anymore and my clothes and that’s nice. I like that.

What other changes have you noticed after you’d given up smoking?

You’re probably not going to like this, but I felt terrible for about six weeks. Terrible. I haven’t coughed, no. People said that you cough stuff. The cough things. Well I haven’t done anything like that. I’ve never really been, had a cough when I smoked and I haven’t done anything like that but I’ve felt terrible, as though I could sleep for ever, I couldn’t do this, I just, just generally don’t feel very well. But I’m just coming out of that now where I feel a bit better.

I don’t know people have said that its, all toxins, all the badness coming of you and things like that, but I haven’t felt very well. It’s not you’ve stopped smoking you feel great. Because you don’t. I’m only just starting and that’s like four months. Three months, four months, I can’t remember. Starting to feel all right.

In terms of physical, how I feel since the, since giving up smoking. I checked on my weight and I put on just over a stone in the year since packing up smoking but I’m consciously attacking that now and trying to cut back on things and bring my weight down and indeed it is coming back down again now so

And I mean that was also tied in with other things. I had knee problems so I couldn’t get about as much. I was more sedentary anyway and so I think the two connected but the knee is getting better now, so I can move around more at the same time that I’m doing a bit more exercise and eating less I suppose. But feeling much better for it, and my lungs are clearer. I don’t get that sort of claggy feeling in the morning which was very disgusting.

Everybody else is just absolutely amazed that I’ve given up. Which I suppose in another way thinks oh great I’ve shown them that I’ll give up. You know, because people have said, You’ll never give up Bethan, you’ll never give up. But I only gave up previously. That was in 2000. And I gave up for twelve months and I was like the side of a bus. I’m not small anyway, but I tripled in size.

But that doesn’t bother me the weight. I mean yes, it does. But you know, because I think oh gosh I’ve put all this weight on. But I haven’t actually, my clothes still fit me, I think it’s just me thinking that I’m putting all this weight on. And of course, because of the summer and the weather, I haven’t done much exercise [laughs] so that hasn’t helped.

And I it’s funny, because after giving up smoking I found that I suffered with hay fever, which I’ve never suffer with hay fever in my life before, and then I’ve been diagnosed with IBS and I’m thinking, oh good God, since I’ve given up smoking I’m getting all these sort of, you know, illnesses. And I’m thinking, I did have a little think, is it worth it. Should I go back smoking? I thought no don’t be silly.

The only thing that smoking’s done for me which I don’t like, is made me put on over a stone in weight. And I always said if it makes me put weight on I’ll smoke again. I’ve always been quite slim and all my clothes are a 8-10, and now they’re a 12-14. I’ve started having to buy and that I don’t like, because I like my clothes that I had. Okay, yes, I’m 65, but I don’t like old fashioned clothes and I like to be reasonably modern but not over the top, and a lot of my things now I can’t get into. Yes, that’s a down side. But I don’t know why because I don’t eat loads. In fact they’ve given me the Fortisip drinks you know, with all the vitamins in. I have them on prescription because I’m not getting any vitamins and that. But I’m still, well I’ve still put weight on.

I think it’s, I don’t know. I don’t know whether it’s something to do with something to happens to your body when you stop smoking, that makes you put that weight on, I don’t know. But it did. It did make me put weight on.

Some of the people that I’ve spoken to have experienced exactly the same thing and said that they sort of replaced food, you know, replaced smoking with food, so that when they reached for a cigarette they’d reach for a snack instead, to sort of keep their hands busy?

Yes. I do, I must admit I do snack. Before I stopped smoking I’d have one meal a day. Now that really hasn’t changed because that’s the way weve always been. We have it at about 7 o’clock at night. But now I’m not smoking I do tend to. I’ve got the chewing gum but it’s sugar free. I don’t, I’ve cut the sugar right out completely because of my weight, but I do have a bag of crisps in the day, may be two bags of crisps. I don’t eat many biscuits or sweet things. But I do buy mints when I’m walking the dog, I take a handful of mints out with me. And I can’t see, you know, that they would put that much weight on. You know, and then I have a meal at night. But even that meal at night, if, I still can’t eat it all, and I don’t have a large meal, it’s just a small meal. I go, Oh take some off, I can’t eat all that. You know. And I, I you know, very rare I finish a meal. I don’t know. I don’t know whether it’s something in your body decides to work when you’re not smoking or stop work when you’re not smoking. I don’t know. Because for some unknown reason I just piled the weight on, and you know, and I feel fat, you know. I go out with my daughter you know, and shell say, Oh that looks nice Mum. And I go, Yes, it’s a fat 14. She goes oh, Mum? You’re not fat. I said, Yes, but I’m not thin either. You know, I’m going to buy bigger clothes and I don’t like it. And she says, No but you look well. And even the doctors she said, I said, I’m a bit worried about the weight. She said, I tell you what Chris. She said, You’re looking good. I don’t know what you’re worried about. I was like, Well I just know I’m getting fat. And that’s it. End of.

Have you what sort of physical effects have you noticed in doing it?

Honestly none, none. I’ve not gained any weight. I realise that I probably am very aware of that. But, you know, the assumption. it was funny actually. The I went to a, I went to a health promotion event, and there was a Quitters stand there. And a lady came up to me and she said, I think I’d just been out for a cigarette. This was some months ago when I And she said, oh she gave me one of the things. She said, Let me give you one of these. Do you want to explore quitting? And I said, Well, actually yes, I do. I was kind of thinking about it at the time and she said, she said to me, Wow, you know, theres nothing but, theres nothing but gains to quitting smoking. And I guess the only gain that you might not want is the stone that you’re going to gain. Hm. That was it. I wasn’t going to quit any more. That put me off for about three months. That was, yes, that didn’t help me. But… again that was an assumption that everybody’s going to gain weight when they quit smoking.

You know, I know theres evidence to suggest that most people might, but you don’t have to, not really.