Sandwich-delivery lady Karen Castle has swapped butts for butties by quitting smoking with the help of the NHS.
Mum-of-three Karen from Detling used to smoke 20-a-day before she reached out for help from the Kent Stop Smoking Service, run by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust.
“I’d tried to quit before, lots of times,” said Karen, “But I just couldn’t stick to it. I would get to the three month stage and just cave in. Someone mentioned the stop smoking service to me and at first I thought “what’s the point of that?”, but I gave it a go and it really helped me. I saw the advisor once a week at my GP surgery in Northumberland Road and it was great having someone there to support me and take my CO readings once a week. I’ve been smokefree for a year now.”
Karen’s husband Christian – a self-confessed ‘happy smoker’ who would get through up to 40 cigarettes a day – also managed to quit with his wife and the couple are now enjoying an active, healthy lifestyle. “We go for long bike rides together at the weekend, sometimes we do 25K which I could never have managed before,” smiles Karen, “we both feel much healthier.”