A man has spoken of his joy at giving up smoking through the support of the West Norfolk Health Trainer Service.

Ron Hall, 67, of Fairstead, King’s Lynn, had been trying to give up for about 10 years. He had managed to cut down to smoking three or four cigarettes a week, but wanted to quit completely.

Ron, who has also had COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) for the last 10 years, began working with Health Trainer Lucille Omurcan in December 2011.

Ron said: “COPD was affecting my breathing really badly. Over the past 12 months it had got worse and smoking was making it worse still, so I decided to try to give up smoking again.”

Ron started smoking when he was 14 and, at times, had smoked 30 cigarettes a day.

He found it especially difficult to refrain from buying cigarettes when he went to buy his daily newspaper, as it was part of his routine.

Lucille advised him to change his habit by buying his newspaper from a different shop. As this was a longer walk from his home, the amount of exercise that he was taking increased too.

“It was 800 steps to the shop, but to begin with I felt I couldn’t make it. I stopped four or five times and was really shattered,” he recalled.

COPD is the name for a collection of lung diseases often caused by smoking, including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive airways disease. Ron has found that increasing his exercise, as recommended by Lucille, has improved his condition.

“Now I have bought a treadmill, which I use for 15 minutes a time, three times each day. My breathing has got a lot better,” he said. 

“I used to take shopping from the car to the house and then couldn’t get my breath. But I can do it now.”

Lucille was also able to show Ron a deep breathing technique to use in place of smoking a cigarette in stressful situations.

He said: “She really encouraged me. I saw her regularly and it was great. I would definitely recommend the service.” 

Lucille said: “Ron is a star. Not only has he improved his health by stopping smoking, he has increased his exercise as well.”

The Health Trainer service can help people to improve their general wellbeing, find ways to exercise more, stop smoking, drink less alcohol or make healthy food choices. Health Trainers work on a one-to-one basis with members of the public to help them improve their health and wellbeing, offering support to achieve their personal goals.

The service is funded by NHS Norfolk and Waveney and is staffed by Health Trainers who are recruited from the local community. They work with people who sign up to the free service to help keep them motivated to achieve their goals.

Anyone who wants to follow Ron’s example can call the West Norfolk Health Trainer service on 01553 782629. People living in south Norfolk can call 01842 757341, in Norwich 01603 638064, and in north Norfolk 01263 516310.

In Great Yarmouth and Waveney, please call Community Connections on 01493 656372 or email [email protected]

There is more information at www.norfolk.nhs.uk (then click on “Your Services”).