I am a 65 year old female who until almost three years ago, use to smoke tobacco cigarettes since the age of 18 when it was considered cool to smoke cigarettes. As the years went by and cigarette smoking was considered bad for your health, I continued to smoke at least a pack a day with the normal smoker thinking…. I’ll quit one day but not today. even though I lost my parents directly and indirectly to smoking cigarettes. My father died in 1957 in a house fire caused by a cigarette catching the house on fire while he was sleeping. I was nine years old. My mother died from a massive heart attack in 1987. She smoked cigarettes on a regular basis but was never diagnosed with heart problems. I continued to smoke after her death but this time I tried two methods to quit cigarettes. The first was hypnosis. It was a complete failure along with acupuncture. I never quit cold turkey or tried any of the nicotine patches. At age 62, I resigned that I would always be a cigarette smoker even though society made smokers feel like uneducated monsters which bothered me more than what I was addicted too. My adult son (non-smoker) moved into an apartment without a balcony for me to go outside to smoke while visiting. He called one day prior to moving and told me he researched electronic cigarettes and was going to purchase one for me to use at his apartment during my visits instead of having to go down 5 floors to get outside or crawl out onto the fire escape. I told him to send the electronic cigarette to my home and I would try it prior to visiting him. I also told him If it doesn’t satisfy, I wanted him to send it back since it was expensive and I would continue to smoke cigarettes even on the fire escape five floors above the ground!! Two weeks later, a package arrived with an EGO electronic cigarette kit. I looked at it for three days thinking to myself another gimmick that will not work!! I absolutely had no intention or desire to stop smoking even if I had to continue to crawl into the dark corners, stand outside in the freezing cold to get my nicotine fix, I would do so. On the third day around 10AM after smoking at least 4-5 cigarettes that morning and wanting another one, I pulled out the EGO that had been charging for 24 hours. I vaped on the EGO for about five minutes and was impressed with the smoke like vapor and the taste. I thought, hummmm, not bad at all. I put the EGO down and continued my daily schedule. About an hour later, I felt the craving for a cigarette but instead of lighting up, I picked up the EGO and vaped for another 5 minutes. On September 12, 2010, at 10AM, I never returned to smoking tobacco cigarettes. From that moment on, I never had the urgent desire to even pickup a cigarette. There were no horrible withdrawal symptoms that I had read about when others quit cold turkey. About one year into vaping, my doctor was so pleased with my chest exam (nice and clear). When I showed him my EGO vaping device and told him my story, he promptly stated, I’ll be right back. When he returned, he had 5 doctors and a couple of nurses with him. I literally put on a seminar showing the doctors my EGO how it worked and my story. I’m proud to say, this teaching hospital is now promoting electronic cigarettes to their smoking patients as an alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes.