For Waitara tane Selwyn Lackner-Priest (Ngāti Mutunga, Te Ātiawa, Taranaki Iwi, Ngāti Maru), this is the second time he’s given up the smokes. The first time was for about a month, but the goal was always short term. Once he achieved that, he fell back into old habits.
This time he has a greater goal and purpose, the birth of his first mokopuna.
He puts it simply: “I don’t want my mokopuna smelling smoke on me!”
Once he made that decision, that was it.
He reached out to his childhood friend Pairo McLeod, who had recently started working as a Quit Coach at Tui Ora, and admits being supported by someone he knew was the only reason he was willing to get in touch.
“I wouldn’t have signed up if I didn’t know the person helping me,” he says.
“Smoking cessation has been around for a long time. We’ve seen it at the marae, we’ve seen it at all of our kaupapa out in Waitara. The difference for me is that I needed the support from someone who’s familiar, so Pairo was the draw card.”
Alongside support from Pairo, the carbon monoxide monitor also became a motivator. Bringing out Selwyn’s competitive side, he was always eager for Pairo to test him at the weekly check-ins.
Pairo warned him that he would probably never get to zero due the amount he had smoked previously, but he got very close. “Blowing a one was good for me,” he says proudly.
Upon reflection he shares honestly that when it came to stopping smoking, it’s not something he wanted to do for himself.
“I actually loved smoking,” he says, “I was probably one of the heaviest smokers you could have possibly seen.”
His habit before he stopped saw him go through a 30-pack a day. If he was drinking, he could go through even more, ready for another cigarette as soon as he finished one.
Now he’s 81 days smokefree and counting.
Selwyn’s advice to anyone thinking about stopping smoking is to find the right kaupapa, “Sometimes your health as a reason is not enough,” he says.
He recommends choosing a forever purpose, something that will still matter when the craving hits, when the stress comes, and when the old routine tries to pull you back.
“The difference this time is that my mokopuna was born a week ago, that was my goal, to be smokefree for them.” he says.
It’s no surprise whānau is a big motivator for Selwyn, as it was the influence of those around him when he was growing up that got him into smoking.
“I’m a person that picked up all the habits from my upbringing, whether they were good or bad,” he says.
Growing up around other smokers , he was seeing smoking happen all around him. By the time he was 15, he had joined in.
But now that’s not the case.
A big moment came about a week into his smokefree journey, when Selwyn was at the marae, and others were smoking around him. He chose to have a beer and not have a smoke. “It was offered,” he says, “but I never had a cigarette.”
The next morning, when he woke up and still didn’t want one, he knew something had shifted. “I knew it was over, it was done,” he says smiling.
Since stopping, his sense of taste has come back, and his sense of smell is stronger now too. Food tastes different and some things he used to like, such as blue cheese, taste too strong now, “I was like, oh yuck, that’s not even nice!” he laughs.
Another improvement he’s noticed is when he says his karakia.
Before, he would get through one line and need a breath, then another line and another breath. “Now I can do like three or four lines without needing a breath,” he says, “it feels wicked!”