So off and on I got used to smoking; my smoking got a real boost when I became a sailor at the age of 17, because you could buy cigarettes tax-free when you were outside territorial waters.



Over time I started smoking more and more cigarettes and had to get up a couple of times a night to have another nicotine fix.

Life without cigarettes was just not imaginable.

Going on an airline trip was sheer torture because I could not smoke for a couple of hours.

We flew to Singapore once and I had a couple of smokes in the washroom in spite of the fact that airplanes were already putting people in jail for smoking.

Over the years half of my mom's family died of lung cancer.

My dad's only sibling died of lung cancer.

My mom died of a brain tumor-she used to be a heavy smoker.

My dad got lung cancer.

After he got lung cancer he visited me; he was a pathetic skin over bones man now, wearing a corduroy suit, BUT STILL SMOKING IN MY GARAGE.

My brother's wife has breast cancer; my brother still smokes cigars.

I started having coughing spells at night and the vision in my left eye was deteriorating.

Me quitting smoking? Impossible- I have no willpower.

Because I knew I could not quit I never even bothered to try.

So after a whole lifetime of smoking I was going to die of lung cancer too.

However, I managed to quit by using self-hypnosis.

On September 13, 2002 at 3 PM I took my last drag and exhaled it through a Kleenex.

That was my last cigarette. I have never even thought about smoking. People can smoke around me and I don't give it a thought.

I no longer cough at night and the vision in my left eye is fine now.