Page 45 - TAIWAN TOBACCO CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT 2019

2018 Small story for the winners of "Quit & Win" stop smoking competition Awards Participants and witnesses Small story for smoking cessation First prize NT$300,000 Participants: Mr. Liao, aged 35, started smoking at the age of 12 and has been smoking for 23 years, smoked 15 cigarettes per day with a maximum of 20 cigarettes. Witness: Ms. Lin, a non-smoker who is currently at the age of 30. Relation: husband and wife From Hualien county Mr. Liao is an Amis youth at the age of 35 and a driver of a refriger-ated container truck. He has been smoking for 23 years. Smoking is controlled at 1 package of cigarettes per day. He has 2 sons at the age of 2 years old and 8 months respectively. Mr. Liao started smoking since he was in 5th grade at elementary school, and most of his nearby friends also smoked. He tried to quit smoking in the past, but failed as he was told that "You will have no friends if you quit smoking" by friends. On April 2, 2019, Mr. Liao was accompanied by his wife to Mennon-ite Christian Hospital to see a doctor and treat a cold. He had been having serious snoring problems. On top of that, considering that he has to raise two young sons, coupled with the rising price of ciga-rettes, saving NT$100 per day can save more than NT$3,000 a month. Thus, he immediately decided to see the smoking cessation clinic, and started the smoking cessation plan by use of smoking cessation medications prescribed by the doctor. Mr. Liao’s working hours are from 6:00pm at night to 6:00am in the next morning. He used to drive while listening to the radio, and has often heard Harlem’s "Quit & Win" stop smoking campaign announced by Radio Taiwan International since the end of March 2019. At the start, Mr. Liao was not confident, yet signed up for the competition online on April 28, 2019 as he felt sure of quitting smoking, and has luckily been selected and won the competition. Mrs. Liao said that in the past, Mr. Liao often had shortness of breath when walking, got tired very easily, always forgot things, and would stop breathing repeatedly during his sleep. However, after the smoking cessation, the family become smoke free, and Mr. Liao’s mental and physical health has also improved. Second prize NT$60,000 Participants: Mr. Tsai, aged 27, started smoking at the age of 18 and has been smoking for 7 years, smoked 10 cigarettes per day with a maximum of 15 cigarettes. Witness: Ms. Yin, a non-smoker who is currently at the age of 22. Relation: Friends From Hualien county Mr. Tsai is a career soldier at the age of 27. He started smok-ing his first cigarette at the age of 18 with his classmate, and had quit smoking for more than a year in 2014, but later returned to smoking due to his depressive mood. Witness Ms. Yin is his col-league. She was told by the medical officer in the army about the "Quit & Win" stop smoking campaign, and encouraged Mr. Tsai to sign up in order to quit smoking, and reminded him to perservere every day. Mr. Tsai stated that he used to take nicotine chewing gum pre-scribed by the medical officer during the first two days of smoking cessation, but stopped taking it as he was not used to it, and tried to be busy by focusing on other things when he wanted to smoke. Smoke addiction made him crave food, so he chewed sugar- free chewing gum and got enough exercise in order to keep fit and avoid gaining weight. Mr. Tsai indicated another problem he encountered when quitting smoking, as other colleagues who smoke in the army still invited him to smoke even though they knew that he was trying to quit smoking, and he had to leave temporarily or directly refuse them. Now that he has successfully quit smoking, his mental health has improved and his insomnia has been cured without taking medicine. Second prize NT$60,000 Participants: Mr. Tseng, aged 22, started smoking at the age of 16 and has been smoking for 6 years, and smoked 10 cigarettes per day with a maximum of 15 cigarettes. Witness: Mr. Lin, a non-smoker who is currently at the age of 22. Relation: Friends From Taipei City Participant Mr. Tseng is an undergraduate student of age 22. He has been smoking for 6 years, and smoked half a pack of cigarettes per day. He began smoking due to a failed romance in senior high school. Although his parents have been persuading him to quit smoking, he did not listen to them as he believed that smoking is very cool, and is a fine way to express rebelliousness, romance, and depression. Until he discovered one of his favorite singers, Post Malone, suffered chronic hoarseness as a result of long-term smoking and drinking, and realized that smoking may cause too much harm to the body.... A few days later Mr. Shen, a military training instructor, arranged for Tsai Mei-Yinh from the John Tung Foundation to give a tobacco hazard prevention lecture, and specifically introduced the "2018 Quit & Win" stop smoking campaign. With that, Mr. Tseng believed that this was God's will and thereby decided to quit smoking, with Lin Wei-Chung, who have been friends with Mr. Tseng since they were young, as witnesses. He also informed his classmates who still smoked about the stop smoking campaign, but his classmates laughed at him and teased that he would not win the prize! Mr. Tseng had a really hard time during the first few days of participating in the stop smoking competition. He was easily distracted and felt an itchy sensation all over his body. He chewed gum and ate snacks to overcome his smoke cravings. Although he had gained a little weight, he regained his trim figure by exercising. "Successfully quitting smoking is more important than winning the prize, as I can get rid of my smoke cravings, and feel happy without smoking, with no more depression," said Mr. Tseng. 43 Reducing the Demand for Tobacco