DANI RAMSEY

Hi, my name is Dani and I work as a stop smoking advisor for Roy Castle FagEnds

Growing up I was surrounded by smokers and I used to watch the way people would inhale and blow the smoke out.  I was fascinated by television shows like ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Dallas’ where it looked so glamorous to smoke.  I always remember trying my first cigarette, holding the fag in one hand and lighter in the other, I lit the fag and attempted to puff on it.  I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right but decided that I looked good with a fag in my hand.  I didn’t attempt to smoke further that day but like with all smokers once you’ve tried it you will always want more. 

A few weeks later I tried to encourage a friend to smoke with me, this she never lets me forget about!  I thought I was really tough having cigs on me but she just made me feel stupid when she declined them.  So instead I proceeded to smoke in secret.

I started to get a little more serious about smoking in my teens.  As a family we holidayed in the same place each year.  It was on holiday in Menorca that I wanted to impress an older guy, so what better way was there? Smoke just like him.  I didn’t think I was addicted as I thought I could stop at anytime.  However my smoking actually increased, especially when at age 16 my mum died.  You would think, with my mum having had severe asthma it would have stopped me lighting up, but it didn’t.  In fact I ended up smoking more as I thought this was the only way I could deal with her death.

By the time I got to 31 I was now smoking 30 fags a day plus I had started smoking cigars on top of this in the evening.  I had no intention of giving up and the fact that I myself had developed asthma over the years made no impact on me.  I never really saw my smoking as a problem as both my partner and I smoked and it was something we did together quite happily.
At the age of 31,   I was temping at the company where my sister was operations manager.  Sharing a car into work she would moan about me smoking.  She told me she was organising FagEnds to come into the workplace to help people stop smoking and asked me to attend.  I said I would think about it.

Later that day I was in the shop asking for 100 of my usual fags.  I went home, lit one up and decided that I would give it a try at quitting.  I always remember where I was when I made this decision just as I do when I made the decision to first try smoking.  If I’m honest I thought I would try to quit but didn’t really believe that I could do it, so the only people I told was my sister and my boyfriend.  I told my sister that until FagEnds come to work I would start by cutting down, and I asked my boyfriend to help me do this by not offering me any fags whenever he lit one up.

Over the next couple of days I managed to cut down a little and then FagEnds come into the workplace.  I went along thinking I would be moaned at but quite the opposite.  Joan was the advisor and was very friendly.  She asked me about my smoking background and what my fears where and why I wanted to quit.  We discussed the various products available that could help me and we decided I should try microtab for a week.  Microtab is a small tablet of nicotine that you place under your tongue and allow to dissolve.  To be honest I opted for them because I was told I could have 40 a day!  She then measured the carbon monoxide in my lungs, (this is done by blowing into a small machine).  A non smoker normally measures 0-5ppm but mine was 16ppm and it was only 11am so by the end of the day it would be much higher.  I went away with a booklet with lots of hints and tips and thought I would definitely give it a try as I was getting all this extra support.

For the next week I made a big effort and managed to cut down to 3 fags a day.  When I attended FagEnds again Joan congratulated me on cutting down by so much but encouraged me to quit altogether.  We checked my carbon monoxide reading again, this time it read 11pm, which proved even though I had done well to cut down I was still damaging my lungs.  So for the following week I really gave it a try.  I would have a microtab whenever I felt a craving coming on and would keep myself busy by painting my nails, going for walks, riding my bike or simply reading a magazine.  I tried to change my routines as much as I could which really helped.

When I saw Joan again I had a no smokers reading of 3ppm and was really proud of myself.  Due to my success I even encouraged others at work to attend FagEnds.  Over the following few weeks I enjoyed attending FagEnds and seeing others achieve the same as me so when I was told a vacancy had been advertised I went for it.

I think my enthusiasm clinched me the job, but overall I wanted to give something back to FagEnds.  I would never have believed that I would give up smoking and therefore I totally empathise with people who attend FagEnds. 

It’s great to help to helping people and so rewarding when they succeed.