MIKE WALSH EXCLUSIVE: Eureka! I discovered a pain-free easy way of liberating myself from nicotine addiction – let’s call it what it is. My generation had an excuse for using tobacco. Before the 1980s smoking was considered a cool thing to do.

The movie stars lit up – literally. Television commercials constantly recycled the image of cool couples lighting each other’s coffin nails.’

All the great movie stars smoked. It got worse: cigarettes were advertised as a health product – no kidding. Furthermore, compared to today, tobacco was affordable.

Unsurprisingly, in the 1960s 68 per cent of adults were hooked. It is now 13.7 per cent.

Smoking 40 cigarettes a day from when I was 16, I was one of the 68 per cent. Waking to the dangers to health and wallet millions of us tried in vain to kick the weed. Few succeeded. My repeated attempts all ended in my surrender to nicotine. The joke was, ‘Giving up is easy; I do it every week.’

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So why when I was 40 years of age was my umpteenth attempt successful when scores of earlier attempts had failed? You have only four things to remember and act upon 1) If you say to yourself, ‘I’ll give up on Sunday’ or ‘I’ll see if I can last a week’ then forget it. You have already conceded defeat.

I remembered the battle strategy of ancient times: ‘burn your bridges behind you’; in other words; there can be no going back. Or Napoleon’s adage: ‘The first rule of war is to convince the enemy (nicotine) that it cannot win.’

I succeeded only because on an unplanned impulse one morning in 1979, I doused the butt of my morning cigarette. As I did so I muttered, ‘That is the last cigarette I will ever smoke.’

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I meant it: No matter what suffering I endured I was determined that there was no way I was ever going to place a cigarette in my lips again.

The removal of all doubt settled it and strangely enough, it helped enormously. I wasn’t kidding. I won simply by removing all doubt as to my intentions. I imagined my enemy – nicotine – accepted my resolve and immediately capitulated.

Secondly, having failed in my earlier attempts I was under no illusions. I knew I would suffer ‘unpleasant sensations’ in my chest. They would get worse and these negative withdrawal feelings would afflict me for the rest of my life.

Then I realized that these strange ‘unnatural’ feelings in my chest were not negative but positive sensations. For the first time in 25 years, I was benefiting and enjoying the fresh air – oxygen – penetrating and spreading throughout my lungs – so essential to life.

This pleasant awareness doesn’t continue through your life; it diminishes by the day, the week. Within eight weeks my breathing was as clear and natural as if I had never smoked in my life.

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Thirdly: The naysayers – the cowards who fail to take the test say that you will add weight by giving up tobacco. You may as well die of cancer or obesity.

Bollocks again. You don’t: My weight has stayed the same throughout my life. In fact, observation suggests that smokers tend to be overweight which leads me to believe they are in fact victims of self-indulgence and weakness of will.

Fourth: Some say the damage has already been done so you may as well continue smoking. Twenty years after I gave up smoking, I had routine x-rays of my chest. As he checked the images out my consultant asked if I had ever smoked.

‘Why do you ask,’ I enquired.

‘Because, from these images, I would never have guessed. Your lungs are as clear as a non-smoker. I rest my case, not my body.

Through numerous media articles, I have conveyed this message and I am sure my story has helped many others. Many listened, but some refused to. My ex-wife smoked.

When Eureka! I discovered this easy pain-free enriching solution I wanted to share my story with her – the reasons for my triumph over nicotine. I was wasting my time, she told me that smoking was a personal choice and she needed no lectures from me.

Suzanne, seven years my junior died of lung cancer in 2020. I rest my case, not my bones – yet. PLEASE SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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