It was a Queensland Health directive that there would be no smoking in hospital grounds, that led Nurse Unit Manager of the North West Hospital and Health Service’s Emergency Department, Andrea Wallace, to quit her 29 year smoking habit.
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She remembers the day: January 5, 2014 and the MyQuit Buddy app on her phone tells her she’s had 1,394 smoke free days since.
Andrea started smoking at the tender age of 13.
“It was peer pressure, everyone was doing it, and it was considered cool.
Now she says, “Smoking’s just not the thing any more.”
Smoking up to a pack every two days, Andrea gave up while she was pregnant but started again straight away after the birth.
She tried to quit several times, and managed for a week, a month, two months, but always started again.
“I tried patches, nicotine replacement therapy, hypnotherapy, but in the end it was the ban on smoking in hospital grounds that prompted me to give up.
“I thought, I haven’t got time and I can’t be bothered walking outside the hospital grounds to have a smoke, so I went cold turkey.”
It worked, and to help herself, she stopped socialising for six months.
“That was my way of dealing with the habit. I stopped drinking and going out, and then I took up triathlons, which became my healthy addiction.
“I knew after six months I would never smoke again, so it doesn’t bother me now when smokers light up near me. I don’t like it, but I don’t feel at all tempted.”
She strongly recommends the free MyQuit Buddy app, which helped her through the first six months, and which she still refers to. It shows her how much she has saved in the nearly five years since she gave up - $34,500.
That has helped fund her triathlon passion, including three tri bikes over the years; the newest, just bought, cost $2,000.
She has participated in the 212km Border Ride to the NT border, The Noosa Triathlon, raising money for cystic fibrosis, the Townsville Triathlong, and is training for the 100km Oxfam Trail Walk in Brisbane in June next year.
“I would never have done any of this if I was still smoking. I feel so much better, and I’m really happy to promote fitness among my staff.
“I’ve done it for me, and for my family. It was a habit and I had to break it. I just needed that trigger, and Queensland Health supplied it.”
The NWHHS tobacco cessation campaign, “Increasing Your Opportunities” will run on Thursday November 15 at Mount Isa Hospital, aimed at encouraging staff and members of the community to manage their smoking.
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