D: p3-d2.txt

Dear Mr. Doe;

Thank you for completing the smoking survey recently.  We are very
pleased to hear that you are considering stopping smoking in the next
few months.

You told us of several reasons why you would like to stop smoking:
you feel your smoking is bad for your health, that it makes you less
fit, and that it is costing you a lot of money.

Smoking is certainly expensive: 20 cigarettes per day costs XX per week,
which is XX per month or XX per year.  There is sure to be something
else you could do with that money!.

Regarding your health, you experience some breathlessness, coughing,
and chest pain, and feel that smoking has a part to play in this.  You
are also concerned about the risk of your smoking making you ill in the
future, in particular the risks of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer
and circulation problems.  All of your concerns are well founded: smoking
has been shown to cause all of the symptoms you mentioned, and to increase
the risk of developing the illnesses you mentioned.  For example, smoking
increases your risk of developing heart disease XX times, and your risk
of developing lung cancer XX times.

Although you are well aware of the health risks of smoking, you are perhaps
less sure of how stopping smoking would affect these risks.  In fact, as soon
as you stop smoking, your chances of developing smoking-related illnesses
begin to fall.  It only takes XX years for your risk of heart disease,
and XX years for your risk of lung cancer, to fall to normal. <I>It is
never too late to stop smoking:</I> even after many years of smoking,
your health will improve if you stop.

You are also concerned that your smoking is making you less fit.  Again
this is a well-proven effect, and again people who stop smoking soon begin
to feel a lot fitter.

You have tried to stop smoking before, but you didn't manage to stop for
very long.  This is quite normal: most people who eventually stop smoking
take more than one attempt.  You felt that you didn't manage to stop for
good because you didn't really want to stop in the first place.  This is
the real reason why most people don't succeed.  The most important factor
in stopping smoking is really wanting to: <I>most people who really want
to stop can and do stop</I>.

We hope this letter has given you food for thought, and that it might
help you decide to try and stop smoking in the coming few months.