Three years ago, my employer - Kenora Municipal Telephone Service started a subsidized quit smoking program for their employees.

I was encouraged by my immediate family and by the people that I work with to take advantage of this opportunity and try to quit smoking.

I was on a 3/4 pack a day habit and was continually coughing, having headaches and generally suffering from all around poor health.

I followed the instructions for the patch for the 8 week period that it ran and have been smoke free ever since.

The hardest part about quitting was the mental addiction that dogged me for a year after quitting, but now 3+ years later I am not thinking about it as much.