I am a 20 a day smoker or was 3 months ago until I started taking Champix. I had tried numerous methods to quit smoking. These included Psychotherapy, the Allen Carr method and the simple ‘cold turkey’ method. I lasted maximum three months on any of these methods and went back to smoking again.

With Champix, my cravings have simply disappeared. I no longer feel like a cigarette and the beauty of this method is, I have not put on weight! I think like most smokers, there is a real fear of weight gain and it seems to take an even greater effort to quit smoking because of that.

The side effects for me on this method have been a slight nausea and strange dreams. The nausea has got a bit better as the weeks have gone by. What also helped was a tip a fellow Champix taker gave me ,which was to chew on a mint or gum straight after taking the tablet and the nausea would ease. That definitely works. The strange dreams, I am glad to say, are not as prominent any more.

As a result of the nausea, my appetite has not increased and I am very happy to say, 3 months on, I have not even put on a pound! When I went ‘cold turkey’, I put on six pounds in 4 weeks and could not eat enough chocolate!

For any of you thinking of quitting, this is the easiest method by far and from my 3 months experience, the most successful.

Champix is available on prescription only.

Like in every smoking cessation method, your willpower is required here. You have to be determined to quit and you have to be disciplined in taking this medication daily.

The beauty of this method is, that unlike the patches which you can put on and take off, this is in tablet form. Once you swallow it, you cannot take it out of your body and it starts working its magic. It switches off the nicotine receptors in your brain and takes the ‘wanting’ or ‘craving’ a cigarette away.

If  any of you are fellow Champix takers, the team at Jackie Brown Medical would love to hear about your experiences.

A big Thank You to Pfizer for this ‘miracle’ pill…..