Feb 1999


Dear Mrs A,

Thank you for returning the smoking questionnaire.  I see from your answers that you smoke 10 to 20 cigarettes a day, you smoke because you enjoy it, and you don't intend to stop smoking in the next six months.  I see that you have tried to stop smoking before, and it may be that you will try again in the future.  With that in mind, I hope you will take the time to read this latter, and that you will find it useful.

You smoke because you enjoy it, and of course smoking is a pleasure for many people.  But there are also some things about your smoking that concern you: you find it expensive, and you are concerned about how it could affect your own heath and your children's health.

At the moment, you suffer from circulation problems, but you don't think that smoking has anything to do with it.  In fact, it is well known that smoking is the main cause of circulation problems for most people.  The good news is that stopping smoking will prevent the problem getting any worse, and it may well begin to improve.

You are also concerned about the risk of lung cancer if you continue to smoke.  You are right about this; smoking increase your risk of developing lung cancer from about 1 in 400 to 1 in 8.  That is a very significant risk.  Again, as you are aware, if you stop smoking your risk begins to fall back towards normal.

You are also right to be concerned about how your smoking can affect your children.  Children in households where someone smoke  Smoking makes your children more likely to suffer from asthma, coughs, chest infections and ear infections, and may even put them more at risk of developing lung cancer in later years.  So stopping smoking makes a lot of sense, for your own health and your children's.

You have tried to stop before, although for less than a week.  You went back to smoking because you missed the enjoyment, you couldn't resist the craving for a cigarette, and you didn't really want to stop smoking in the first place.  This last reason is very important: stopping smoking for you means giving up something that you enjoy, and you will only be able to do this if you really want to stop.  At the moment you are not at that stage, although this might change: perhaps some of the information in this letter will encourage you to think again about trying to stop.

You did find nicotine patches or gum useful before.  Using nicotine patches or gum doubles your chances of stopping smoking, if you are determined to stop.  So if you did try again, it would be worth using patches or gum again.  Your pharmacist or GP will be able to give you more advice about this.

Remember, most people take more than one attempt to stop smoking.  And most people can stop if they really want to.  I hope this letter has been of some interest to you.