"I Did It!"
Talk to most smokers and they will tell you how many times they have tried to stop. They will tell you how hard it is and how they intend to try again. Stopping, no doubt about it, is very difficult.
Just ask Cardinal consumer Tim Hunt. This past October Tim went “cold turkey” and is now 5 months without a cigarette. His success is all the more remarkable because Tim has been smoking for 40 years. “My Mom and Dad smoked and I wanted to too. I started when I was only 15.”
Tim tells how he couldn’t wait to get from one approved smoking location to another. Staff, Sue Hickman, relates how anxious Tim would get in the car when they were driving. “Tim couldn’t wait to get out of the car back then. Now he is relaxed and that anxiety is gone. He can actually enjoy the ride and have a conversation with you because he’s not thinking about that next cigarette.” Tim also says his memory is better now, he breathes better and can walk farther and faster.
What motivated Tim to stop smoking? It was his simple desire to have a cell phone and a little extra cash in his pocket. He and Sue figured out how much money he’d be saving if he wasn’t buying cigarettes. “It was a lot!” says Tim. So now Tim has his cell phone, and enough cash to splurge on a nice evening out for him and his girlfriend once in a while.
Best of all, Tim is proud of himself and what he has accomplished – and rightly so. He will readily admit that quitting was not easy, and some days were harder than others. Yet, when he made it through 4 months and knew he was done with the cigarettes, Tim proudly placed his first call on his new phone to his brother, Glen. His first words? “I did it!!”