my boss at the restaurant I worked at

her and her husband used them

and I remember thinking how cool they looked

all steampunky and glass tanks

which for me was really appealing

From the first puff

I thought this is something that might work for me

I had an e-cig that the stop smoking nurse

had given me, I tried it a couple of times

and thought yeah this is alright

I think it was more the habit of the smoke, and doing that

that I needed so I thought I'm going to get

a real good go.

I think for me transitioning from smoking to vaping was a kind of a natural thing

and it happened really without any

effort on my part at all and the reason

for that I think is because it's

actually a perfect replacement for smoking

It felt like I was smoking

I was getting the nicotine that I was so

used to all along, but of course now

I didn't have the negative health aspects

of it, it's just it seems to work

The first lungful it worked

it just made sense the sensation was similar

but the exhale was there

so I could see something coming out of my mouth

and it was cool, and it was geeky

and I literally went back in the house and

threw all my tobacco stuff in the bin

I literally picked it up started using it

thinking ah, yeah, yeah, I'll cut down by half with this

and got to the end of the day

and thought hang on a minute I haven't smoked

It wasn't an intentional I'm going to stop smoking

it was a this thing is going to help me

reduce, but actually it turned into a

switch it was I don't need that anymore

You get the benefits of smoking so

you get the action of smoking you get the

inhalation and exhalation you can choose

what nicotine level that you want

you can choose what flavours you want

And after a while it's actually better than smoking

it tastes better

I mean at the time, I think I was vaping

juicy peach – why wouldn't it be?

You'll get a device you get a liquid you

get a combination that kind of makes you

go oh hang on a minute, I quite like that.

The e-cig juice I'm using today is

three milligrams of nicotine

strawberries and cream.

There are so many different types of

e-juices, and strengths of e-juices

anybody that's quitting smoking can get

an e-cigarette, find a juice that

makes them happy and stick with it

I started on tobacco of flavour and when I

first I stopped smoking, and then it started

to get a bit sickly the taste it was not

very nice, but it helped at first when

I'd just stopped smoking, it was that tobacco

it was like fag taste

You've got people making these really complex flavours

it's not just banana or just blueberry

It's like a whole pudding, with custard and things

once you start getting in to that and seeing how

much there is out there, it keeps your

interest going

You can get everything from chicken flavor, custard cream, to

papaya and melon

and everything inbetween

The one that I've got in here is actually

rhubarb crumble

you couldn't actually pay me to eat rhubarb

but this is one of my favorite flavours

And you don't have to be expensive

some of the liquids are £1 a bottle

– cheap as chips.

I only have one flavour.

I love that flavour – lemon and lime – but love it

I don't like any other flavour

As I've continued to use e-cigarettes I

find that I don't need the strength of

nicotine that I started with

it gradually gets lower and lower

Most smokers now start at 18 milligrams per

milliliter, a lot of people find that

goes down, and then you end up using less

nicotine, I don't know if you don't need it so

much anymore but it's really quite

common to find yourself reducing your nicotine

without even realising that

you actually are.

I don't get nicotine withdrawals now

I could go 12 hours without my e-cig

whereas before when I was smoking

I couldn't go an hour without

I'd be pulling my hair out, you know what I mean?

With vaping I don't have that same

sense of anxiousness and fear about

not having it

it's not a major panic if I leave the

house without it

I don't have to turn back, and I'm not

gonna buy something else while I'm out

I enjoy it as much, I probably enjoy it more, in

terms of habit, but in terms of needing

it in the same way? I don't need it in the same way.

If I could give some advice to smokers

what it would be to

try vaping, and find vapers - they're

all over the place, they're online they're

everywhere and if there's one thing that

they like to do, it is to talk about vaping

don't be scared off by the stuff that

you read in the media

don't be scared off by your other quit

attempts which are stressful and

upsetting and all of that stuff.

Vaping is fun, and it's meant to be fun

and you can enjoy it.

e-cigs are the best thing that I've ever discovered

if you've struggled quitting with patches and tablets

try e-cigs

because I tried them, it changed my life.

I'm a non-smoker now, and I'll never turn back

I feel quite proud of myself now I'm not beating myself up

because I don't smoke anymore

and I'm very confident about the future now

If you can switch you've beaten it.