Our Stories
Planet of the Vapes forum members share their success stories of how vaping helped them to quit smoking tobacco. 3/5
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by Dave Cross
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MrDJ quit smoking on February 20th 2015. He started smoking at around 11yrs-old, and continued until he was 51, averaging 20-30 cigarettes a day. Sadly he lost his heavy smoking father to cancer but still struggled to quit smoking himself.
After a dalliance with cigalikes in 2012, it wasn’t until 2015 the MrDJ finally achieved success: “Sky Cig brought out a pen style ego type battery which you filled with e liquid and I was hooked. The taste and flavour and nic hit was so much better than the screw on cig a like refills. Within a week I had picked a date to stop smoking. At 1 minute to midnight I had my last cigarette and went to bed.”
“Next morning I picked up my vape and that was it. I still have packs of cigs in my car and my house. My 4 zippo lighters are collecting dust next to me while I’m on my computer but I’ve stuck at it - and in two months time I will have reached my 4 year milestone.”
Forum member Fuctifino says he has a similar story: “I was gifted a Blu Pro kit, an older CE4 thread atomiser with baccy liquid so it cost me nothing to try/nowt to lose. It worked, tiny bit weird at first, but honestly if I can quit then this stuff really works.”
Sensibly, he thinks vapers “must be careful not to ram this down smokers throats. It is a fine line to suggest and not to lecture smokers.”
Eyeball Kid writes: “Giving up smoking was a big deal for me. I was never a cigarette smoker but a cigar smoker (and I mean I always had a big cigar on the go) and I'd also become involved into the aficionado side, which involved meetings in high end London clubs and hotels plus jollies abroad to Cuba so it had really infiltrated every part of life.”
This fifty-year lifestyle came with costs: “It was also making me ill and emptying my ever depleted bank account. At the same time Mrs kid was noticing how breathless she was getting and between us we were spending more on smoking than anything else we did.”
They had recently become grandparents. This, combined with the other issues, drove them to make another quit attempt – this time with gum – “it didn't go well. I was not fun to be around.”
“It was around late summer 2014 and Mrs Kid noticed a vape shop had opened in town and she returned with an ego battery, disposal tank system, charger and three bottles of juice. She switched there and then. I was so impressed with how it physically worked and how Mrs kid made the instant switch that I went and bought one myself.”
“I found caramel gave me those cigar style notes and that was that. I was no longer a smoker. I found Planet of the Vapes a few weeks later while checking out upgrade options on the Internet and read up and followed everything going on here. I'm not much of a joiner but I missed the social aspect of cigar smoking so I joined. I instantly was welcomed aboard and given all the help and support I need to keep away from smoking while picking up a hobby.”
“We now spend a fraction of £500 plus a month we were spending before and feel so much better. No wheezing, no coughing and no months long chest infections after every sniffle. My blood pressure is textbook and I feel 100% better. Also my grandchildren tell me I always smell nice.”
Rob is one of our forum administrators and has spent his time here helping all and sundry to find a vape that works for them. He tells his story: “As is so often the way of these things, Carol was actually the first of us to make the switch. We had gone to my Tobacconist to pick up a couple of Pipe Tobacco Blends I wanted and she saw a Starter Kit and became curious, purchased one, brought it home, charged it up and that was it! She has never smoked again, this was July 2012.”
Rob continued to smoke for ten days until all of his pipe tobacco supplies had been used up, but then: “Same thing, never smoked again.”
“I discovered POTV during that year, but lurked until we were a year into vaping. We made a conscious decision to find liquids that suited us before getting into the hardware side of things and, to this day, I still believe that this was the best thing we ever did.”
“Since then we have enjoyed the camaraderie that makes POTV what it is and have slowly become increasingly involved with the whole social side of things, attending Vapefest when able and enjoying the few ‘Meets’ that we have attended.”
“Perhaps the second ‘Big Thing’ for us after switching, was starting mixing our own liquids, this too has become something we seriously enjoy and would recommend to anyone. Yes, the initial setting up costs a bit, but you soon realise that it is a huge saving given time. Our monthly liquid bill has tumbled to all bar non existent and obviously, that pleases us greatly.”
“A word about the vaping communities that are out there: In the main, we have both been welcomed wherever we have been and have made some very close friends. Can't ever imagine that happening back when smoking LOL. The kindness and enthusiasm shared has been truly humbling and we are always thrilled when we hear of acts of generosity towards newcomers and seasoned hands alike. Whatever any of us can do to ease another ex-smoker's journey is time and effort well spent.”
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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