My name is Chris and I was a pack per day smoker for nearly 35 years. I had many attempts to give up smoking over that time. One of my early attempts was using NRT and I had a lot of trouble, getting clinical depression and was on anti-depressants and lost my job. My last attempt at stopping smoking before using e-cigarettes was with Champix and I again nearly lost my job. A few years ago I saw a family member who no longer smoked using an e-cigarette. I did not think much of it at the time and knew nothing about them. It seemed like a fad and no different from smoking. I had seen nothing in the media or anywhere else about e-cigarettes. This was before my attempt to quit using Champix, and I wish I had known more about e-cigarettes as I would never have used Champix if I had know how easy it is to give up smoking with e-cigarettes. At the beginning of 2013 I was aware that smoking was taking a heavy toll on my health and that if I continued down this path I was a good candidate for lung disease and possibly COPD. My chest hurt all the time and I wheezed constantly. It seemed that my breathing while asleep was extremely shallow and I frequently woke up with headaches. I saw a web article about e-cigarettes and how it was much healthier than smoking but still did not know if it would be at all helpful for me. More out of curiosity I decided to buy one automatic battery and some cartridges with nicotine to try it. From the very hour I received that first trial kit I did not have another cigarette. It worked well enough that it removed any need for me to smoke tobacco completely for the first two weeks. When that automatic battery started to fail I realised that I had to get much better equipment as by that time I really didn’t want to start smoking again. I did not want to start smoking again even though I still had the half pouch of tobacco that I was using on the day my first e-cigarette arrived. I purchased an Ego starter kit, and now use it and more advanced devices at home. After a month I noticed that the smell of tobacco smoke was unpleasant, something which my wife had been telling me for years. This increased my resolve to never smoke again. This was fortunate because there are other chemicals in tobacco smoke that are addictive and increase the affect of nicotine. I still had some withdrawal symptoms however my e-cigarette helped me deal with these. The ability to use different flavours and higher nicotine strengths in my e-cigarette was very important during this time. It has now been 5 months since I stopped smoking. My health has improved a great deal. I no longer wheeze or have pains in my chest and can taste and smell things like I have not been able to for many years. I know that I have greatly increased my health and life expectancy. One of the hardest things to overcome when I started using e-cigarettes was other peoples perception of them and lack of understanding. Ill informed media reports and other information that amounts to fear mongering means that many people are lumping e-cigarettes in with tobacco smoking. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nicotine itself, while at least as addictive as caffeine, does not come with any of the deleterious health affects caused by burning tobacco. It’s also true that nicotine on its own is not as addictive as burning tobacco. I am finding my tolerance for nicotine is much less than when I was smoking and am reducing my intake both by reducing the amount in my liquid and by using it less. When I was smoking it seemed that I could never get enough and was always anxiously awaiting my next cigarette. Smoking was a viscous circle that was killing me. Vaping e-cigarettes needs to be promoted as a healthier alternative and a harm reduction strategy, not marginalised through propaganda and fear mongering. If better information about vaping had been available years ago I would have been able to give up smoking much sooner.