Bernadette Campbell, Stop-Smoking Co-ordinator, Rutherglen

“Stopping smoking changed my career!” 

Quitting smoking through a local NHS stop-smoking group not only changed Bernadette’s health, but also her career.

After starting to smoke with friends when she was 13, Bernadette (42) soon became addicted and was smoking 20-30 a day when she quit in 2004. Bernadette was working as an administrator in a Doctor’s surgery when she saw a poster for a stop-smoking support class. “It was when these groups were only just starting up so I put my name down and then thought I’d better go and see what it was all about. I wasn’t actually thinking about quitting but when I was there and heard more about giving up smoking I set a quit date for the following week.” 

“The turning point for me was actually the night I quit. My friend offered me a cigarette and I turned it down. That was the first time in my 22 years of smoking I had done that. When I said no I realised I could do it and I thought well, if I can go a night it’s an achievement.”

Bernadette said she found it hard in the first month but it got easier and easier. “I took it day by day but as each day went by without a cigarette, I thought, ‘yes, I’ve done it’!”

Bernadette chose to use nicotine patches to help her quit and was using them for around eight weeks before stopping them completely too, and she attended the group for seven weeks. However, it didn’t stop there fore Bernadette.

“For a couple of years after quitting, I used to attend other quit groups as a volunteer former smoker to talk to people about life after smoking. From there, someone suggested I do the stop smoking training which I completed in 2007 and I became a stop-smoking facilitator in the evenings whilst still working at the surgery. Then in 2010 a post for a full-time health improvement practitioner came up and I got the job.”

Bernadette now runs stop-smoking courses and drop-in clinics, provides telephone support for quitters, and organises awareness raising sessions around the community. “I was a smoker so I can relate to the people who attend my courses. When I help a smoker to quit, it’s a great feeling.”

For Bernadette, her greatest benefit from quitting is that her son, who was three when she stopped, has grown up with her as a non-smoker especially as she thinks young people are very influenced by their parents smoking habits. She also says she became aware of her health for the first time and since quitting has made other healthy lifestyle changes including eating more healthily and taking exercise which she also says benefits her son.

“I’d say to anyone thinking about quitting, think about your health and look forward to how your life will change fore the better. You can do anything you want to do and there are choices out there for us all.”

What do friends and family say?

“My husband could see how addicted I was so was delighted. And my mum was really pleased as my dad was a smoker and had died. Now she doesn’t worry about my health like she used to.”

Husband Colin on Bernadette quitting: "The house and car no longer smells of stale smoke and the money we are saving is great. I have encouraged and supported Bernie the whole way through the programme because her smoking habit was increasing and eventually that would have an impact on her health."