It’s an addiction – it’s very difficult to stop. But I got there in the end and haven’t really looked back.
During his time as a smoker, Jayden-Shaun smoked between 10-20 cigarettes every day ‘depending how stressed’ he was. He started smoking at university when he was 21, when most of his friends smoked, and he continued for around 15 years.
Jayden-Shaun thought cigarettes were ‘relaxing’, and helped to ‘calm’ him, but ultimately stopped smoking them to improve his overall health and performance in sports, and to benefit financially from the savings he would make.
He had been considering quitting since his first child was born 6 years ago, and had made several quit attempts, but finally made the decision to quit for good in August 2023 as part of an all-round change in lifestyle, coupled with dieting and going to the gym.
Being a parent to 2 young children, he was motivated to ‘start making healthier life choices for them’ so that he ‘can be around longer to look after them’. He had also witnessed his mother-in-law, and children’s grandma, a fellow-smoker, pass away from lung cancer and was determined that he didn’t ‘want to go out like that’.
During previous quit attempts, Jayden-Shaun found it hardest to abstain from smoking during periods of stress, and he also struggled in social situations when others are smoking. This time around, his method for quitting was to gradually cut down over a period of 6 months, until he maintained it at around 3 cigarettes a day for a while, before cutting them out altogether.
I started socially, mainly - my friends smoked. It’s just something we did at uni - you go out a lot
Health wise, I stopped because it was affecting me. I play sports and it was affecting my performance… my endurance wasn’t quite as good, and I was coughing quite a bit. My lungs when doing excessive exercise – I just wasn’t as fit as I could have been.
Overall, Jayden-Shaun found quitting really hard and, in hindsight, wishes he could have gone through the quit journey with some support – it didn’t cross his mind to look into quit support services, but he recognises now that it could have really helped him.
I think it's stressful trying to quit smoking because you're depriving yourself of what your body thinks you need in your brain, but you don't actually need it. So it's very difficult... The lack of support was hard, because I did it all by myself. There was no one there pushing me or helping me, or keeping tabs on my progress. So I don't know if there’s any kind of group or anything out there? I just made a conscious decision in my head to stop and took it on myself to sort my own problems. But in hindsight, if I did it with a group of friends or a support group it probably would have been easier.
Despite this, with his new lease of life as an ex-smoker, he doesn’t look back. He describes himself as ‘fitter’ and ‘richer’ with a ‘better work life balance‘. He has knocked 18 minutes off his 5km pace post-quit! Quitting has brought him ‘closer to the family unit’ and he really appreciates having more energy and being able to dedicate more time and money to his family and ‘making memories’.
I’ve got more disposable money to spend on the kids - they can go on more trips. Overall, I think family life has got much better. When you do the maths, it's stupid amounts of money - you don’t realise when it's like a tenner here, £20 there. But when you total it up monthly, wow it’s like 1000s at the end of the year, which is holidays and gifts for the kids.
As part of the quit, Jayden-Shaun took up vaping as a nicotine replacement – which he now uses ‘out and about, on the weekend’, replacing the desire to smoke cigarettes socially.
He’s found that keeping busy and active has helped to keep his mind off the cravings.
If I didn't have a vape, it would be extremely difficult - when your friends are smoking you might get drawn into it. So replacing it with running or vapes… whatever it might be, you just need the replacement.
What advice would I give to smokers?
For me it was willpower and determination – you’ve got to want to do it… Just think of the money that you’re wasting and the time spent with your loved ones. The health benefits of not smoking outweigh smoking – it really hits home when someone close to the family passes away and you’re like ‘that could have been me’.