Do you smoke?

I smoked for 50 years and I loved it. If they were not harmful and were cheap I would start again tomorrow. I gave up quite a few years ago now but I still miss it nearly every day.

OK, I'll own up to this one. 20-30 a day. Yes, I know but so hard to quit... I did stop for both my pregnancies so perhaps I will do it again some time soon.

I used to smoke from about 14 - 22. I never really liked it but I did it because all my friends did. Gave it up on my first pregnancy and then went back on it after the birth. Gave it up again on my second pregnancy and never went back. So 42 years without smoking and I detest it now, can't believe I ever did it. It's disgusting!

I have chronic lung disease, but never smoked in my life. I remember when I first became ill at twenty, I was in hospital and a doctor refused to believe I had never smoked.
However, I was a victim of passive smoking, at home, at my in-laws and in the school staffroom, where just about everyone smoked. You could hardly see at lunchtime for the thick smoke. I used to have to go and sit in my room, as some days I could hardly breathe.
I was told I was making a fuss about nothing. Thank goodness, that wouldn't happen nowadays.

I was in A&E last week, with breathing problems. One of the first questions I was asked was I a smoker or had I ever smoked.

I’ve never smoked although I own up to the odd glass of wine. In my first year at college we had two outings. The first to the Newcastle and Scottish brewery in Newcastle to see the brewing process. At the end of the visit we were all given a bottle of Newcastle Brown ale, also known as Mad Mans Broth to take home. The second visit was to the Wills cigarette factory just outside Newcastle (now art deco apartments) and at the end of the visit we were each given 20 Embassy tipped cigarettes as a souvenir.

No I have never smoked and barely drunk either. I've never been one to do things because other people did. My Mum was a very occasional smoker, probably one a month when watching a film. My Dad always had a cigarette in his mouth although it was usually not lit. I hate the smell of smokers, always have done. Mainly I never smoked because I was heavily into sport and always wanted to win and anything that gave me a chance of doing so was worth it. Neither of my Sons have ever smoked either for pretty much the same reasons, sport came first.

For our parents’ generation cigarettes were anxiety-relieving (during the war) and appetite-suppressing (during rationing).
I don’t think their harmful effects were fully known until the ‘60s.
But the frightful coughing was a powerful deterrent to their children.

Georgesgran
I am in the north east as well and can remember the brewery and Wills factory. I had a neighbour who worked there and she said the staff could take as many cigarettes as they liked when in the factory, but where not allowed to take any home in case they tried to sell them!
I was a 20 a day smoker from age 18 to 72.Ashamed to say I continued during both of my pregnancies but cut down to one after a meal I was a nurse and can remember in my student days the male patients got a bottle of brown ale after their Sunday dinner.Smoking was allowed on the wards every patient was given a ash trait was a nightmare as some of the older ones had a habit of falling asleep with a lit cigarette in one hand so we had to constantly check on them, and remove their matches and lighters at night for the fire risk.
Now I am doing penance for my long smoking habit, in the form of COPDI have had a lot of scary moments and rely on inhalers now to keep me alive.
Both my parents were heavy smokers my father died of COPD before he was my agent kept on smoking until the bitter end, he would even turn off his oxygen to have a smoke.His mother, whom we did not see very much due to distance seemed to always have a cigarette dangling from her mouth.She died in her sixties from a smoking related illness.

Sorry for the typos it is getting late

I started smoking at 14, usually about 20 a day, after I married and DH did numerous tours of NI and went to the Falklands my habit went up to 40 - 50 a day. I gave up completely when his forces career ended.

I smoked when I was younger, although not during my 2 pregnancies. I stopped altogether, 35 years ago. I'm now 63.

Gave up when I got pregnant at 25 ....32 years ago ....never wanted a cigarette since...partner doesn't smoke

I’ve never smoked. It always just seemed crazy to me. Smelly and ugly. In the 1960s many of my friends smoked, but they all gave up eventually.

My grandfather, who lived with us when I was a teenager, smoked a pipe. So did my brother for a long time, but none of my family ever smoked cigarettes - except my younger son, now in his mid-forties, who smoked from age 14 to 25. He’s very anti-smoking now!

Does anybody smoke a pipe now? I never hear it mentioned.

They ask for variety of reasons some of which are related to getting paid as an incentive to offering smoking cessation sessions to help people quit. I used to do coding for GPs along with nursing and it is coded in patient's records.

I smoked my first cigarette while still at school and eventually kicked the habit about 20 years ago. I loved cigarettes but I love being a non-smoker even more. Nowadays the thought of sticking a cigarette into my mouth, lighting up and inhaling makes me want to heave.

Neither I nor my brother have ever smoked despite both our parents being smokers. My dad smoked a pipe.
When he was teaching me to drive the stress of me driving his precious car caused him to puff away at several times his normal rate causing my eyes to stream. The lessons were finally abandoned because of this.
My mother died of COPD.

Never smoked . Just the smell of other peoples smoke makes me feel muzzy and sitting next to a smoker is as bad as sitting with someone with bad BO.

No, I've never smoked the first one I tried made me vomit. My DH smoked at school and until he was 26 ,20/40 players untipped a day. I went to buy them for him. We moved and he said I am no longer smoking and he stopped there and then.
He used to have the odd cigar but has even stopped them now.

I never smoked - couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to, but my parents, older brother and sisters all did - mostly untipped cigarettes then. My father died of lung cancer. My DH, a soldier for twenty two years, started smoking when he was fifteen and smoked through almost all of his Army service. He gave up in 1979, but started again when he was posted to the Falklands in 1982, and then gave up for good three years later when he left the Army, but by then the damage was done. He died this year of lung cancer.

Both my parents smoked (dad, a pipe) and also my grandfather who lived with us. I hated them smoking and I often had bad throats/chests as a child. I tried a fag end once from an ashtray. Never again. ? Of we four siblings only one of us smoked, oddly enough the one least likely to, personality-wise.

My grandfather died in his 80’s from a mouth/throat cancer that may well have been caused by smoking. My parents gave up in the late 80’s, after one of my young dc told them they smelt bad. Dad lived until he was 92 and mum is still going strong at 94.

I started smoking at 19 and, apart from my two pregnancies, did so for almost 20 years. I then saw sense and gave it up for good. I now can't bear the smell and so my house is a no smoking zone.

My father had a brain haemorrhage at the age of 67. The consultant decided to perform surgery and explained to me what was involved. I told him I was very optimistic about his recovery as he was so slim and active and never touched alcohol. The consultant replied very kindly that none of that would help him as he had always been a very heavy smoker. Sadly he was right and my father died 2 weeks after the operation.
Fortunately for me I inherited his dislike of alcohol but not his liking for cigarettes. Lung cancer is only one of many smoking related illnesses.

I puffed a couple of cigarettes in my teens but hated it and never smoked again. My OH smoked from age twelve and tried many years to give up but by the time he did the damage was done and he died of bladder cancer 3 yrs ago.

No. My mother had TB when she was pregnant with me and was violently opposed to smoking. Neither myself or my brother and sister took it up. Lovely Dad smoked and died of oesophageal cancer at 84

I've never smoked -can't stand the filthy habit and don't allow it in my home! I grew up as a teenager with my Mum and late stepdad both being 50-a-day smokers and it was yours truly who had to wash out the nasty, smelly ashtrays on a daily basis. That alone was enough to put me off the disgusting habit for life - as well as the cost of a pack of cigarettes!

A few years ago I was house-hunting and viewed one property with a smoker in residence; the whole house absolutely stank of tobacco, to the extent that it would have required complete redecoration throughout (painting, papering, new carpets and curtains in all rooms) before I would consider moving in to that house, and I just didn't have the funds for the considerable expense,