Grimsby mum-to-be praises local Swap & Stop team who helped her kick smoking habit for good

A Grimsby mum-to-be who has smoked since the age of 19 has credited the "amazing support" she has received from a specialist team at Grimsby Hospital as being the catalyst to help her finally kick the habit for good.

After trying several times to stop smoking over the years, Sam Lee, who runs a local pub, was motivated to try again after finding out she was pregnant.

She accessed the free help available from the Swap and Stop Tobacco Dependency Treatment Team, who provided support through a highly-trained advisor and nicotine replacement therapy.

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Sam said: “My brother and my mum were smokers, but I never took on to the trend until after school, so I started quite late, about 19, but when I did start, I started properly.

“Working and running a pub comes with a lot of stress so I'm out at the first given moment and because I'm the boss as well, I can just go whenever I want. Also, if I run out, they're on tap. My customers will give me them so that's a really big struggle for me.

“It's always been in the back of my head that I've wanted to stop smoking and I've spoken to my partner about it a few times, but falling pregnant definitely made me think ‘right, that's it, I need to stop smoking’.

“My advisor is really good, she doesn't seem like an advisor, she seems like a friend so it's not scary in anyway whatsoever. You go and you think, ‘oh God, what's going to happen’, but she's just amazing."

But just like overcoming any addiction, Sam's journey to stop smoking hasn't always been plain sailing.

She added: “I relapsed on a Friday night on one of the pub’s busiest nights of the week and I then smoked for the rest of the weekend. I had a little bit of a cry and I said to my advisor ‘I'm so sorry’. She just told me it's fine and that we have these relapses.”

Now, Sam is back working through various methods to help her quit once and for all.

“I just feel like this is a step to fully stopping forever. When we have the baby, the baby's not going to grow up in a smoking household, with a parent having to nip out and have a cigarette here and there," she said.

“Swap & Stop is a service that's there and you'd be silly not to take it. The support you get is just amazing, just try it. Until you do, you don't believe it. I've always thought these patches won't work; this won't work, but it does, it does work.”

Free help is available for everyone to stop smoking in North East Lincolnshire. Visit https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/health-wellbeing-and-social-care/health-and-wellbeing/smoking/ to get started today.

For more information on Swap and Stop tobacco dependency treatment services for parents-to-be, visit https://www.swapandstop.co.uk/info-for-parents-to-be/.