The Growing Worldwide Team – Singapore

We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful team of people within Allen Carr’s Easyway organisation across the world. Smokers who want to find out how to stop smoking easily sometimes find it really hard to imagine that it is possible.

They are so used to previous attempts to quit smoking ending up feeling like a huge never-ending battle that leaves them feeling miserable. In looking for a way to stop smoking it can often be inspiring for them to hear how our team around the world has been brought together. This is another installment in a series of features that look at the journeys taken by members of Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Facilitator team; from being some of the most prolific smokers on the planet to becoming happy non-smokers and world-leaders in the field of stopping smoking.

Pam Oei, Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Singapore writes:

I remember my first cigarette at 11. I had stolen one of my father’s Dunhills and was horrified at how it tasted. I was completely stumped as to why people smoked at all.

When I was 17, I found myself hanging out with the “bad boys” of my school. And everyone knows that bad boys all smoke – those who played in a rock band especially. I started with Lucky Strikes. Rock musicians don’t do the “soft” menthols. I remember experimenting with different brands trying to find the “right fit”. And the right fit was always the brand that your friends were smoking at the time.

I did not expect to smoke for a further 17 years. I always thought I’d dabble in cigarettes for a few short years and then I’d decide it was enough and I would just stop and it would be easy. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Every time I tried to stop smoking, it felt like the world was coming to an end. In my last 8 smoking years, I must have tried 3 or 4 times a year to stop. I used nicotine patches, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, Zyban, pure will power – to no avail. And each failed attempt to quit smoking made me feel worse and worse about myself. I am a theatre actor and sometimes when I was performing in a musical, I wouldn’t be able to hit some notes and I knew it was totally due to my smoking. It was humiliating and degrading and yet I couldn’t stop myself.

In 2006, I was on my 3rd dose of Zyban AND still smoking, but secretly. I didn’t want to let my loved ones down by telling them I had started smoking again. One night, I was going through my brother’s ashtray, looking for a stub to smoke when I quitted in my tracks, realized how ridiculous the situation was and seriously did some reflection. I lay down on my bed and was horrified to count that I had been smoking for 17 years. I decided that I needed some help and went on the internet. That’s when I found Allen Carr. This name just kept popping up so I decided to give it a go. I was going to London for a holiday anyway and checked myself into Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Center there.

I was excited when I left my session but also a little skeptical. A day went by, nothing. A week went by, still nothing. I was waiting for the craving to come back and bite me from behind but nothing happened. After a month went by, I was shocked at how easy it was to stop smoking. Just like that. After 17 years of hell, it just took one afternoon to cure me.

When I went back to Singapore, I recommended the book to all my smoking friends. When 10, yes TEN of my friends quitted smoking, I decided it was time to do something about it. That’s when I started making inquiries about being an Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking therapist. I really wanted to help smokers find it easy to stop smoking (like I did).

Today it’s wonderful to have been responsible for bringing Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking to Singapore and help other people stop smoking and I can’t tell you how fulfilling it is. It’s almost as fulfilling as living my life free from the clutches of nicotine and I thank Allen Carr all the time for this gift of freedom.

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Pam Oei runs Allen Carr’s Easyway stop smoking seminars in Singapore.

For more information about how to get help to stop smoking with Allen Carr’s Easyway To Quit Smoking Clinics and how stop smoking easily rather than feeling like you have to give up smoking (and feel deprived) click on your country’s flag. Did you find it easy to stop smoking rather than feeling like you had to quit smoking or sacrifice something? Maybe you could help to spread the word? Do you know of anyone who you would like to help stop smoking? Tell them about this feature and if they mention it when they book a session at any one of our stop smoking clinics across the world they can obtain a 10% discount (not valid in conjunction with any other offer or promotion).