Trust patient unlocks fitness goals by quitting 20-a-day habit
A smoker since she was 21, Michelle Laffin has credited the South Eastern Trust’s Smoking Cessation Team with helping her quit her 20-a-day habit and embracing a zest for fitness.
Michelle explained how it was during a holiday last August that she had begun to feel unwell and “experience some numbness down my left hand side.”
Michelle’s GP sent her to the ED at the Ulster Hospital and she was admitted for further tests to rule out a possible stroke.
Michelle described how it was being on the Respiratory Ward that she began to read leaflets and pamphlets on the ways to stop smoking that sparked what would become a life changing link with the Trust Smoking Cessation Team.
Michelle explained: “I asked if I could see the Team and so they came to see me while I was on the ward.
"They explained how they could help me, that it was a 12 week programme and the support that was available.
"When I was discharged from the hospital – and I have to be honest – I took off my nicotine patch that I had been wearing and had a cigarette. I never felt so sick in my life. I felt like I was going to faint and thought to myself, ‘What are you doing?’ That was the last time I had a cigarette.”
Michelle became more determined than ever to quit smoking and with the help of the Cessation Team faced her journey to becoming a non-smoker head on.
“Of course the hardest part of giving up was the first couple of weeks. The Team really helped me be accountable and when someone from the Team rang me to ask how things were going, I was so proud to say, ‘I haven’t been smoking’.”
The 53-year-old has chalked up a whole year of being a non-smoker and transformed her home into a gym.
“I started exercising and making small changes very slowly at the start of my giving up cigarettes," Michelle continued. “The Couch to 5K app has been amazing for me and I’m running for 30 minutes, three times a week now and I go swimming every Saturday.”
“Giving up smoking is the best thing I have ever done in my life. I’m just annoyed I haven’t done it sooner. It has really changed my perspective. I remember buying a blood pressure machine when I came out of the hospital. My blood pressure was always high but since giving up smoking I have great readings now, my risk of a stroke has clearly dropped.
“Smoking is a terrible addiction but you can stop it and I have not looked back.”
South Eastern Trust Smoking Cessation Co-ordinator Karen McCann explained: “We offer a Stop Smoking Service to all patients in the South Eastern Trust area. It is a 12-week programme and incorporates medication and motivational advice for patients.
"The evidence shows how by engaging with our Team you are four times more likely to success on your journey to becoming a non-smoker.
“We offer one-to-one support over the phone and we also see patients who are on the wards. It is so rewarding to hear that a patient has become a non-smoker and the benefits they are experiencing in their physical and mental health.”