Hi,

I am 31 years of age, after smoking since I was 16 and a half (amongst several previous attempts to quit) I finally quit smoking two weeks before my 31st birthday . I have now escaped the nicotine prison for just over 9 months and I can truly say I do not have the desire to smoke again. This awesome achievement is thanks to  me stumbling upon the "Why Quit"  web site, and from the information presented it also led to my own quest to educate myself  regarding the psychological, physical and neurological issues surrounding nicotine addiction. After gaining such knowledge I now fully understand that smoking/nicotine does nothing whatsoever for your physical and emotional well-being and therefore I am safe in the knowledge that I will never take another puff for the rest of my life. So again thanks for saving my life "why quit".

However, reading the horror stories of some unfortunate people  who have developed lung cancer and are featured on your site , I am constantly petrified that my attempt to stay off nicotine is in vain and that it is too late because of the fact that an ex-smoker can develop Lung cancer or other cancers within 20 years of quitting. This fear has also been borne out of developing symptoms of finding blood in my mouth upon waking, although you will be pleased to know this has been diagnosed by my doctor and ENT specialist as bleeding from my nose, caused by allergies and compounded by a deviated septum (this may have been uncovered by quitting). You also be pleased to know 5 months after quitting,as a precaution, and to ease my mind, I was given a state of the art CT scan of my sinuses and chest, and thankfully the doctor stated there was no worrying features whatsoever. However, as I said before, I have worked myself up in to a state of paranoia regarding possible cancers developeng in the future.

Has anybody else experienced  my fears and am I being irrational? I am quietly chuffed with my achievement, but would dearly love to shout it from the roof tops.

yours gratefully

Grant