April 3rd, 2014, 9:53pm – that was the moment I stubbed out my last tobacco cigarette after a 30-a-day addiction that lasted more than 20 years. I didn’t feel anxious, or stressed, and I wasn’t climbing the walls with panic as every smoker does if the pack runs out half way through the evening with no more packs in the house. I had tried to quit several times for a number of years. I tried nicotine patches, inhalers, gum and lozenges, even cold-turkey abstinence. None of them were successful, because they all left me feeling stressed and anxious, like I was missing out on something. I actually enjoyed smoking, even though I was fully aware of the established health risks associated with inhaling burning tobacco smoke. I had reluctantly concluded and accepted that I would eventually die from a smoking related illness. Everything changed on April 2nd 2014. That’s when I went out for lunch to buy another 20 cigarettes, and came back with a pack of 20 and an e-cig starter kit. It was a complete impulse buy and to this day I don’t know why I bought it! My only previous encounter with an electronic kit was with a cig-alike kit that tasted awful and cost a small fortune. But the kit I purchased was rather cheap and it looked quite cool with it’s shiny steel tube body and curvy glass tank. I’d also picked up a bottle of menthol e-liquid for it, as the thought of tobacco flavoured juice wasn’t appealing to me. That afternoon I put the kit together and loaded it with 18mg juice. I was still a heavy smoker, but decided to use the e-cig as much as possible when I would normally go out and smoke a cigarette. The experience for me was revelation. I was fully aware that the nicotine in tobacco cigarettes is a primary reason for lighting up, so the thought of getting the same nicotine ‘fix’ from a liquid vapour made total sense to me. I was using the e-cig at the same times and in the same situations that I would have smoked tobacco, and it felt just as satisfying. In fact, it was more satisfying because for the first time ever I felt like I was actually smoking but without inhaling harmful smoke. By the end of the day I still had half a pack of cigarettes left and was seriously considering binning the remainder. However, the typical smokers reasoning kicked in and I decided to smoke them until the end because I’d paid for them. So, on April 3rd I started the day with around 6 cigarettes left in my pack and a fully charged e-cig. It took all day to burn through the tobacco cigs and actually eagerly anticipated the evening ahead when I would smoke the last one and not rush out to buy more. Friday April 4th 2014 – the first day in over 20 years that I wasn’t smoking cigarettes and didn’t feel the panic of not having a pack in my pocket. It was my first full day using my electronic cigarette and the feeling for me was life changing. I had a brilliant weekend. When I purchased the e-cig, there were three other people in the office that used them instead of tobacco products. All had quit smoking and used the e-cigs so they didn’t need to start smoking again. In the 12 months since I started, other smokers started asking about our devices from time to time and, at the time of writing, there are over 20 people who completely switched from tobacco to vapour. I find that amazing! My friends and workmates all have different tastes in hardware and liquid. Some are still using a single Ego-style starter kit that has proved to be 100% satisfactory and successful. Others have taken to next step and upgraded to a simple variable voltage battery and larger tank. A small number of people, myself included, seem to have adopted vaping as a hobby, each possessing a wide range of hardware such as regulated box mods, hand crafted mechanical tube mods, and atomizers with heating coils that we meticulously craft ourselves. The important thing is it doesn’t matter what people are using, as long as it keeps them off the tobacco. Fast forward to today, and I’m no longer a slave to tobacco. I sleep better without getting restless or wheezing whenever I lie down in bed. I can walk up the stairs without getting breathless. I can taste and smell things like I used to before I started smoking, and my family have definitely noticed that absence of smoke odour around the house and on my clothes. Making vaping available to smokers should be a top priority for public health organisations if, as they claim, the health of the public is their primary concern.