David weeds out addiction to pack away quitter award
The annual prize is awarded to the most inspiring person to have given up smoking in the past year.
David, 46, an unemployed IT worker from Templeogue in Dublin was judged the most deserving quitter after overcoming recent ill health and redundancy to kick the weed. For the past 30 years, the father of three had smoked an average of 40 cigarettes every day.
"I gave them up once by starting on cigars," joked the winner, who received a prize of a holiday to South Africa.
David's catalyst for change came when he was forced to undergo an operation at St James' Hospital in Dublin last summer after being diagnosed with a pancreatic tumour.
Such was his nicotine addiction that he insisted on going to the hospital's smoking room, even while still attached to an array of drips.
"My lung collapsed slightly after the operation and the hospital's Health Promotion Nurse, Carmel Doherty told me that giving up smoking would help with my recovery," explained David. "It's a pity that other people don't have the same kind of access to people like Carmel as I did."
With the assistance of Nicorette patches, David finally succeeded in giving up cigarettes for the first time in three decades after four previous failed attempts.
"My advice to would-be quitters is to give up for yourself and not for someone else. Seek help and if you do have a sneaky cig, just start again," he said David.
Among the runners-up was 77-year-old Kathleen Brett from Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny, who calculated that she had smoked over 500,000 cigarettes in the last 60 years.
Other award winners were Theresa Mullen, Duleek, Co Meath; Anne Moloney, New Bliss, Monaghan and Hugh Brennan, Crumlin, Dublin.
Announcing the awards was Boyzone and Coronation Street star, Keith Duffy who declared himself a slightly lapsed ex-smoker since giving up cigarettes on New Year's Eve 12 months ago.
"I was smoking since I was a kid but I never considered myself a smoker because I didn't have money to buy cigarettes," he said.
"It didn't help to be a singer as an awful lot of time is spent waiting around. Out of boredom, you end up smoking a lot," admitted Keith. "I didn't realise how unfit I had become until I started playing football again after having spent eight years with Boyzone. It came as quite a shock because I had always been active. It scared the living daylights out of me," he said.
However, Keith confessed that he had been tempted to smoke the odd cigarette since he moved to Manchester to live for a few months last year when starting his current role in Coronation Street.
"I was living with two blokes who were chain smokers and I did take the occasional drag. But I'll never smoke in Ireland again because my wife and kids don't like it."
