The hardest bit was in the bag, I’d made the decision to stop smoking, now all I had to do was to make the transition from smoker to vaper.  Over the following month I substituted a volcano for each of the smoky hits I was used to. Almost immediately I got ill and during this time coughed up a lot of black-speckled stuff. This is a normal process for anyone giving up smoking but it was crazy to see how much I was producing!

After about a month I went to visit some friends who I previously smoked with. They (a couple) were passing joints between themselves and when offered to me I said why not? It had been a month of solid vaping so I thought I’d give it a try again. It wasn’t the joint I remembered. The smoke tasted thick, acrid and I’d go as far as to say suffocating. What it showed me was that I’d gone a long way to making an adjustment both on a sub-conscious level (my perception had changed) and on a physical level (my lungs had started to heal). The physical hit I had at first craved had been unmasked for what it really was – not meant for human consumption.

Nearly 24 months on from this and today I really appreciate the clean flavour and refined taste of the vapour that I’ve become a custom to, a substance I believe is closer to a foodstuff than to tar-rich smoke, it really is delicious! My lungs feel clear, clean, open and in massively better shape. So whether I’m hacking up a hill on my bike or holding my breath underwater my lungs do their job.