Alwyn smoked a cigarette every 5-10 minutes. He was introduced to Steve from the QUIT team after a stay in hospital, thanks to the support from the team, he has now stopped smoking cigarettes and now has the energy to undertake his hobbies again.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00My name is Alwyn Harper. I live in Great Orkney, which is near Baldry, South Yorkshire. I smoked
00:14and it turned out badly. I smoked one every five to ten minutes.
00:22The frustration of knowing I was smoking far too much and I couldn't get out of it.
00:29It's one of those things you get into when you think it's a good thing. You find all
00:34the ins and outs of yourself before you actually come to the conclusion it is a bad thing.
00:44Quite a dilemma I was in. Wondering whether I would ever stop. Wondering whether it was
00:55possible without going through hell. Being through so much hell I thought, I need a bit
01:02of heaven in a smoke every so often. That was the only bit of heaven I got.
01:08My carer, my carer friend, my official friend, I didn't think talking to her about it would
01:17raise anything. But about a week later, I just knock on the door. I show him, poke his
01:29head out and he says, do you want to talk smokey? I go, well, you must answer that question.
01:40Yes, please. I said, well, I've been waiting ages for somebody to say stop smoking.
01:49He teases me, I'll get you out if you stop smoking. Which is all I wanted suddenly on my side.
01:57I found him courteous and kind. He was just what I needed and I found myself responding to him.
02:06But the main thing, I had a friend. A friend and he said he stopped smoking some years ago.
02:13And I thought, well, he can do it, I can do it. He looks well, he looks young. He's so good.
02:21He didn't push me. He said it would take a while, which I admitted in my condition with smoking.
02:31It was a true statement. I thought, this is better than all the stuff you see on television about
02:40stop smoking, in the papers. But the personal involvement he made was something new.
02:51Steve was my man for everybody. I'm sure there are others like him who don't just say, I stopped you,
02:59there's something wrong with you. I don't want that. Because everybody knows, the men I've experienced
03:07who've been through it themselves and they're not just people saying I never smoke.
03:16I've asked my sister a lot of times, does it make a difference? It does.
03:26It means I can pay the stuff we see around here.
03:32The stuff on the wall wouldn't have been here if we hadn't turned up that day.
03:38I'd have been either dead or in jail for bank robbery. One of the two.
03:45There was no way I was going to get out of that.
03:50When I knew I couldn't stop, I was asking for a miracle.
03:58I'm afraid I got one. I'm afraid I got one.
04:03But I'm realising now, my pleasure's come in other things. Things I really wanted to do.
04:11Yeah. Like my radio, my painting.
04:19All the things I was prepared to do when I grew up. Not just let it all pop.
04:27A packet of cigarettes.
04:30I'm a free man. I don't have to say that my bank account's pretty bad.
04:37I don't have to be wondering where my next meal's coming from.
04:42I wouldn't have done it on my own. I've tried. I get two weeks into it and start again.
04:50You made it forever. Thank you.