Journalist Jamie Summerfield, from the Sentinel, Stoke-on-Trent, explains why his smoking had to stop.

Smoking was a time bomb waiting to kill me.

My parents both smoked. It killed my father. He died of cancer when I was 21. Every time I took a drag of a cigarette, that thought went through my mind. My mother stopped smoking years ago and now has dangerously high blood pressure.

I didn't want to end up dead. I didn't want to live with high blood pressure. I know I had only smoked for four years but I was still extremely worried about my health. Worried that the same thing could happen to me, which happened to my father. To be dead at 55. I have a six-year-old daughter and I didn't want to see her grow up without a dad.

It is for this reason that five weeks ago I gave up smoking. I went along to the smoking cessation clinic at my local GP and got kitted out with nicotine patches and advice.

My girlfriend gave up four months before and I thought, well if she can do it, so can I. The nicotine patches helped immensely but psychologically it was hard.

Trying to break habits like having a cigarette after a meal or with a pint down the pub are difficult to overcome.

The nurse warned me about it and asked me to try replacing the cigarette with something different. So now I go for a walk after my meal instead of having a smoke.

I don't want to pretend it is easy, it isn't. It is an addiction and a difficult one to drop. But the good news is that I no longer cough and splutter in the morning or gasp for breath at the top of the stairs. I feel fitter and healthier than I have for years.

Five weeks on, I feel proud that I have managed to give up. I know I am not over the hurdles. I know I am still battling with it. But I am on my way to victory.

I will keep on chewing the gum and using the nicotine patches and thinking about my daughter.

Anything that really gets YOUR goat, or just pushes your buttons? Heaven or hell, tell us what's on your mind.
E-mail us now