Alex Cox, a Wellbeing Champion at Babcock, recently attended our No Smoking Day Networking with the Smoke Free Team within the Champion Network. From this, he wanted to share his incredibly inspirational story of how he had quit smoking in 2016 and has stayed smoke-free ever since…
Hi, my name is Alex Cox. I am 49 and work for Babcock at Devonport Dockyard, and this is my Stop Smoking Story.
I gave up smoking on April 1st, 2016, as I thought it would be a good joke on myself if I could actually do it, having failed many, many times in the past. If nothing else, it would be an easy date to remember when I gave up smoking!
My smoking journey started at the shocking age of 12 years old. Both of my parents smoked, as did many of their friends, so seeing smoke in the family home was not uncommon as a youngster, as there wasn’t the same attitude towards smoking as there is today. Access to cigarettes was relatively easy as well, as both parents had them, so I could pinch one or two without them noticing.
Having joined secondary school, everyone tries to be “cool and fit in,” so when a group says they smoke, you feel the peer pressure to say you do too, and that is how it started. A few others in the small village I lived in, Torbay, experienced the same thing, and before long, we were all full-time smokers while still in school. As time progressed, dinner money and bus fares were being used for cigarettes, and we were smoking every break time, trying to avoid being caught by teachers and dinner ladies.
I smoked all the way through college and university into my working career as a Project Manager, so I must have spent thousands of pounds on tobacco, as well as encountering the obvious health risks along the way. Having two daughters of my own now, I would be horrified if they started smoking, and even more so if it was at the age of 12.
So, what made me stop after all those years of smoking? The main catalyst for stopping smoking was seeing my father in Torbay Hospital very close to death from smoking, as he had been diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The image of his grey face from lack of oxygen, sprawled out in a hospital bed, still sticks with me today. He will never recover from this condition, but by stopping smoking himself, he has prolonged his life expectancy considerably, so his family is extremely grateful for that.
I feel that in order to succeed, you need to have a strong desire and dedicated purpose to quit, as smoking is extremely addictive. You become physically and psychologically dependent on them, as it becomes as much a part of your daily routine as having a drink or eating. Understanding what your catalyst could be is a great first step towards stopping smoking, in my opinion.
I recognised in myself that I have addictive traits, so I decided to try the “cold turkey” method, as I feared I would become too dependent on vapes, patches, gums, etc., and struggle to give them up. Every person is different, so these methods had not worked for me in the past, so I adopted this new strategy. I totally understand this won’t be for everyone, but it worked for me. I admit it was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I struggled with sleep for around 6 weeks, only averaging about 4 hours at a time due to the cravings.
Each time I thought about smoking, I would recall my father in that hospital bed and tell myself that could quite easily be me in the near future, and it would be my daughters having to make that awful visit to the hospital. I did not want that to happen, so it was a massive motivation to carry on without cigarettes in my life.
I devised a number of coping mechanisms to get through this 6-week period. I carried a short pencil to mimic a cigarette if my hands needed something to hold at particular times of the day, i.e., when first getting up or after meals. I also had a container full of chopped fruit such as apples, grapes, oranges, and melon. This was to replace sweets when the craving to eat came. It also helped as the longer I stopped smoking, the better everything smelled and tasted. The smell of the fruit was a great reminder that good things were happening due to not smoking. The last part was replacing a bad addiction with a good one, so when at home and I got the craving to smoke, I would do pull-ups on a pull-up bar installed above my utility room doorway. This released endorphins, which make you feel better and help reduce stress. As a keen rock climber, this helped massively with my strength and conditioning.
Strangely enough, I have always been a keen sportsman even though I smoked. Looking back, I could have participated at a higher level in many sports such as football and BMX racing, but my poor cardio level, due to smoking, hindered that tremendously. After quitting smoking, I actively sought out more sports to participate in and to try to obtain a reasonable level of confidence. To this end, I have ended up playing golf for the Boringdon Team within local leagues/tournaments and captaining Mannamead Tennis Club in the Plymouth and District 1st Division. I continue to play padel, climb with my two daughters, and enjoy cycling with my partner Alison. My cardio level, general fitness, and wellbeing have definitely improved significantly over the 8 years since I stopped smoking.
I would encourage every person who currently smokes to try and stop as soon as you can. Plan for success by trying to determine the best coping method for you, as it is no easy feat, but the benefits outweigh the struggle 1000 to 1.
