Community: Real Life

I quit smoking in public

TV presenter, and daughter of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan, Chloe, 22, tells TheSite about appearing on Celebrity Quitters and giving up in public.

Chloe

 I'd wanted to give up smoking for a couple of months because I'd moved out of my family home and because of that my smoking habits had increased quite a lot. I went from smoking two or three cigarettes a day to eight or nine. I would go back on the weekends sometimes and see my parents and they would pick up on it. Heart disease runs in our family, so they were getting a bit worried about me. Then my boyfriend started mentioning it and you know if it's someone your own age who loves you has noticed it's not really a great habit, well, then there's probably an issue there.

I started when I was about 15, not properly, but that is when the ball started rolling. At first I was very secretive about it; I wouldn't ever smoke in my house, not even out of my window or in the garden like a lot of kids do. And then I just carried on and my smoking habit got a lot worse as I became more independent really.   

Quitting on TV

Then I got an email asking if I wanted to take part in Celebrity Quitters. They said they'd give us help from psychologists and doctors and nicotine replacement therapy, so I thought "Yeah, now's the time."

"You've just got to keep going and think about how you'll be able to say in two years time 'Oh, I used to be a smoker, I haven't smoked for years."

It actually helps that I quit in the public eye, but then I think "My God, if anybody saw this or there was a camera around, I would let down so many people who had started to quit because of me or because of the show. If Derek Acorah who was smoking about 50 a day - or me on 10 a day - can do it, then anybody can. It's just about will power, although finding the right nicotine replacement therapy helps too, so when the cravings hit in the early days you can learn to go without a cigarette.

I always think the nicotine replacement therapy probably saved me in the beginning. I mean you have to really want to quit, but you need to choose the therapy that's right for you too. For me, smoking was very much a social thing, so I had an inhaler which was like a prop cigarette - they're available on the NHS too. I don't get cravings in the day any more, which I'm really grateful for, but still on nights out when all my friends are smoking and I've had a couple of drinks, well, it's really difficult not to cave.

"My hangovers are half as bad"

I have noticed a difference in my teeth, they are whiter. And my energy levels are higher and my hangovers are half as bad as they were. So there are definitely physical benefits to giving up and I've found there were psychological ones too. I suffer from really bad anxiety and panic attacks and I always thought smoking helped to calm me down and kept them at bay a bit. But overcoming something which I had no control over, which I was totally addicted to, and knowing I did it has really helped me get a grip on my anxiety attacks. 

You've just got to keep going and think about how you'll be able to say in two years time "Oh I used to be a smoker, I haven't smoked for years."

Updated: 12/04/2010


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