The Growing Worldwide Quit Smoking Team – Mauritius

We are so fortunate to have such an amazing group of people within Allen Carr’s Easyway organisation across the world. People who want to find out how to quit smoking easily sometimes find it really hard to imagine that it is possible. They are so used to attempts to quit smoking ending up feeling like a never-ending fight that leaves them feeling miserable and deprived of cigarettes. In their search for a way to quit smoking it can often be inspiring for them to hear how our team around the world has been brought together. This is another installment in a series of features that look at the journeys taken by members of Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Facilitator team; from being some of the most prolific smokers on the planet to becoming happy non-smokers and world-leaders in the field of stopping smoking.

Heidi Hoareau, Allen Carr’s Easyway Mauritius writes:

I first tried to quit smoking when I was 24 years old after being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, a potentially crippling, chronic auto immune disease. The diagnosis came as a shock but what felt even worse was being told that it could have been triggered off by my heavy smoking. You are not supposed to get sick from smoking at 24 years of age… that’s never going to happen to any of us, we’ll have quitted years before it affects our health… well that’s what I had always told myself. What I didn’t realize is that when I lit that first cigarette at 12 years old I had lit the fuse of a time bomb… I just didn’t know how short my fuse was. Needless to say I felt very stupid, but did all that quit me smoking? Not a chance…..

It did start a process of me trying to quit smoking… 3 years of repeated failure later, I had tried countless different methods; patches, medication, nicotine gum (tasted like licking an ashtray!), hypnosis, cold turkey (nightmare) and numerous other “miracle cures” and gadgets that are too embarrassing to admit that I spent my hard earned money on. I was thoroughly discouraged and depressed and ready to accept that I was just one of those people who would be a smoker for the rest of their lives.

Throughout this painful process a friend from work kept encouraging me to try this “amazing” method called “Allen Carr’s Easyway to Quit Smoking”. She swore it had worked for her like “magic”… but here’s the thing… I didn’t believe her. I just couldn’t picture her smoking, she was never bothered by me smoking like a chimney in front of her and she never once acted envious of my smoking, I didn’t believe that she had ever been a “real” smoker like me. She had gone to an Allen Carr’s Easyway seminar in the UK along with a few friends of hers and said that after that day none of them ever smoked again, and what’s more didn’t miss smoking at all. I was extremely skeptical (to say the least).

We didn’t have the sessions in Mauritius at that time so at least I had that excuse not to go but she recommended that I get the book. I never did, I just couldn’t believe that after 3 years of trying everything out there (I mean I’d tried “drugs” to quit for goodness sakes!) that someone was going to help me quit smoking just by talking to me, either in person or through a book, frankly I thought it sounded like nonsense.

Then one day we were at a bookshop together and there was “The Book”… “Allen Carr’s Easyway to Quit Smoking”… she forced me to buy it… I relented… read it… and never smoked again!

Now when I try to explain to people just how incredibly well this method worked for me I also find myself using words like “magic”. Obviously there is no mumbo jumbo but it just made so much sense, and was so easy to quit, that is how it felt to me, like “magic”.

There is such a difference in my life since I quitted smoking. I have so much more energy, my Rheumatoid Arthritis has been almost completely in remission for years and I am so much healthier and have even lost weight. Most importantly, I no longer feel like a slave to an addictive poison. It is so great not to have to smoke anymore. I feel FREE!

My stopping smoking led to a domino effect among the smokers that I knew, they all saw how happy I was as a non-smoker and wanted to know the “secret” and so I recommended the book… so many quitted it was like “magic”. After 3 years of this the ones who didn’t like to read started calling me for help because I was still such a happy non-smoker, until one of them in frustration said “why don’t you do the sessions here in Mauritius!” … the result of that conversation led me to apply to Allen Carr’s Easyway and I’m proud to say after some really tough training I’ve been an Allen Carr’s Easyway Facilitator for the last 5 years.

I’ve had such enormous pleasure by helping so many people just like me who thought they could never be free. I will always be grateful to Allen Carr’s Easyway for giving me back my health, my self-respect and my FREEDOM!

For more information about how to get help to quit smoking with Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Clinics and how quit smoking easily rather than feeling like you have to quit smoking (and feel deprived) click on your country’s flag at the top of this page.

Did you find it easy to quit smoking rather than feeling like you had to quit smoking or sacrifice something? Maybe you could help to spread the word?
Do you know of anyone who you would like to help quit smoking? Tell them about this feature and if they mention it when they book a session at any one of our quit smoking clinics across the world they can obtain a 10% discount (not valid in conjunction with any other offer or promotion).