Linda's strong will, and how it helped her quit

We're all afraid of slipping up, but the trick is to get yourself back up.

I had my last cigarette on the 26/06/2014 after smoking 30 per day for 40 years.

I never attempted to quit smoking in the past because I was so afraid of failure. The hardest part was to make the decision to quit, and initially I thought, my day starts with a cup of coffee and 2 cigarettes, this will be impossible. Well, no it wasn't. I decided to quit at 1pm. I quit cold turkey the very next day.

Looking back, I feel I did the psychological aspects of quitting smoking rather easy, it was more of what I like to call 'symptoms of recovery' which is what I found the hardest.

Insomnia was something I got bad, and the inability to concentrate for long periods of time. I guess what I am trying to say here is, learn what to expect as your body adjusts to not having the 4000 chemicals found in cigarettes.

Maybe because I was such a heavy smoker and smoked for so long I experienced a number of symptoms as my body adjusted. The one thing that I would like to share with you is, no matter what symptom or side effect I experienced, none of them lasted for too long and they were all bearable.

I also download an app for my phone to track days and money saved etc. For me, it took just over 12 months to accumulate $10,000 from not buying cigarettes. In my opinion, if you have the self-belief and determination - you can quit smoking.

15 months later and yes, I still get the occasional craving which generally makes me smile as it is my reminder of the strong addiction that smoking is. I wish you all the very best of luck on your own quit journey.