Miles, 48, gave up smoking when he was 28. He is White British, works as a solicitor and is married with two children. Miles started smoking with his friends down the pub when he was 17. Later he smoked more when he trained to be a solicitor to cope with the stress. Miles gave up when he met his wife as she was against smoking. Now his son has a chest condition and he finds he is much more conscious of people smoking.

Sue, 57, gave up smoking when she was 54. Sue is White British, works is a researcher, is married with a son. She tried her first cigarette aged 11 but started smoking regularly when she was about 16. She had various attempts at giving up, including stopping when she was pregnant, but then gave up through absolute' necessity, as she had a pulmonary embolism when she was 54.

Rukmini, 35, works as a lecturer. She is Indian, lives by herself and gave up smoking when she was 25. She has only smoked socially' ever since. Rukmini grew up in Goa and started smoking when she moved to Delhi to do an MA. She enjoyed smoking with friends and associated smoking with overcoming cultural taboos, since where she grew up women rarely smoked. She gave up when she moved to the UK.

Tamsin (also referred to as Tam), 37, gave up smoking aged 35. Tamsin is White British and works in a factory. She lives with her husband, has one child and is currently 7 months pregnant. She gave up during her first pregnancy. Tamsin was 15 when she had her first cigarette and used to smoke in the toilets at school. Over the years she had many attempts to give up but finally succeeded when she found out she was pregnant. Although it was hard, she is now very pleased she has given up and is pregnant with her second child.

Raf, 40, gave up smoking three months ago. He is British Pakistani, currently unemployed and lives with his wife and four children. Raf started smoking on a trip to Pakistan when he was a teenager. He ended up smoking up to 30 cigarettes a day before he started trying to quit. Raf has now quit for 3 months with the help of varenicline and hasn't wanted a cigarette since.

Andy, 31, gave up smoking when he was 28. Andy is White British, works as a courier, and lives with his partner. He started smoking when he was a teenager and enjoyed the social aspect of smoking with friends. He thought he could give up anytime, but when he tried he found it hard. He had several attempts but gave up through will power and now thinks he will never smoke again.

Sarah, 33, gave up smoking four months ago. She is White British, works for the expert patient programme, community interest company (CIC), has no children. Sarah started smoking as a teenager with a friend. Later she worked abroad as a dancer and smoked about 30 a day. After trying Quitline, and hypnosis, she finally quit with the support of a colleague and is now saving the money she would have spent on cigarettes.

Lisa, 38, gave up smoking when she was 26. Lisa is White British, is a full-time Mum and lives with her husband and two young children. She grew up in a smoking household and started smoking when she was a teenager. Lisa never really tried to give up smoking because she thought it would be hard, but then read the Allen Carr book and found it was the start of a whole other more healthy lifestyle.

Peter, 39, gave up smoking 16 weeks ago. Peter is Norwegian, works as lecturer and is married. He started smoking when he came to the UK to study. Some years later, Peter gave up after two attempts with the help of a programme from Boots. He has also used a phone app called Since I Quit' to monitor his progress.

David, age 69, was diagnosed with asthma at age 53. He is white British, married and has three adult children. He works as a government researcher. David's asthma is mainly triggered by cold weather and wind. During summer he generally doesn't experience symptoms. Since his diagnosis David's asthma has become worse and he has recently been diagnosed with COPD. He attributes the onset of his asthma directly to the fact that he was a smoker, and gave up smoking soon after the diagnosis.