Having taken up smoking when she was 19 years old Emer O'Connor was really scared about quitting. But, she tells Joy Orpen, she found help and is delighted to be free of the need to light up at every opportunity.
Contrary to what many people believe, kicking the smoking habit is not an impossible task. In fact, it may be as easy as chucking in the Mars bars or saying no to overeating. That is the view of one Dublin resident who is thrilled she no longer needs to put a burning tube of shredded leaves into her lips so she can suck in the carcinogenic smoke.
Emer O'Connor is a pretty blonde in her 30s who exudes good health. The youngest of six children, she grew up in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo. She says she was always very anti-cigarettes because various members of her family were heavy smokers, but when she was 19 she relented. "I was a late starter," she volunteers. "I think I was just curious. I guess I saw something cool in people who smoked and I wanted to be with them."
Unfortunately, Emer's addiction was instantaneous. "I became a heavy smoker straight away," she admits. "I was never a social smoker or an only-at-night smoker. From the beginning, I was ready to go." When Emer left school, she moved to London. Over the next several years she worked for two major banks and loved living in England, where her days revolved around cigarettes.
"I'd have a cigarette in the morning before the gym and another 20 on average throughout the day. But at weekends, or while having drinks, that number often doubled," she recalls.
Following her stint in London, Emer returned to Ireland and began working for a bank in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Dublin. She says nicotine addicts tend to stick together, forming little cliques of "smoking buddies". Meanwhile, she and her sister Hilary were sharing an apartment in Castleknock. Hilary had already given up cigarettes and would encourage her sister to do so too, by leaving a copy of Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking lying around.
Source: Joy Orpen, Irish Independent, 19/01/15
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