Time to kick the smoking habit

WITH a success rate of around 50%, Champix is hailed as the best aid on the market to help people quit smoking.

TODAY I took my first Champix tablet and hopefully it will be the silver-bullet stop-smoking aid it is claimed to be.

After smoking for the past 12 years, I bit the bullet for the sake of my health, but it seems the wonder drug may not be all it is cracked up to be, according to Lawrence resident Colin McWilliams.

But on the other side of the coin, with a success rate of around 50%, Champix is also hailed as the best aid on the market to help people quit smoking.

What seemed good initially, resulted in Mr McWilliams becoming progressively sicker.

“After being prescribed with it, all seemed well and smoking stopped as promised by my GP,” Mr McWilliams said in a letter to The Daily Examiner.

“I started to feel quite ill within a few weeks and was hospitalised shortly after.”

After leaving hospital, Mr McWilliams said he sought advice from many GPs over a two-year period as to why he still felt ill, only to be met with indifference.

Daily Examiner Lower Clarence media sales manager Peter Smajstr said at first he experienced some mild nausea after taking Champix but this settled after a couple of days.

“I continued to smoke for around 10 days after commencing the course of medication but by that stage the taste of each cigarette had become so repugnant that I no longer possessed the desire to smoke,” he said.

“I have now completed the course of medication, suffer no cravings and feel better than ever.”

“I would recommend Champix to anyone who is determined to kick the habit and has failed before with other quit-smoking aids.”

Originally published as Time to kick the smoking habit