When hard-hitting smoking campaigns left her little boy afraid she might die, The Northern Echo's Lizzie Hill knew it was time to finally give up smoking for good. The young mum is now documenting her bid to break free from a 15-year- long addiction as she embarks on Stoptober, a nationwide campaign that has helped 22,000 people in the North-East quit smoking. Lizzie spoke to Joanna Morris as she prepared to smoke her last cigarette

“I CAN still remember the first time I smoked. I was 15 and with a friend from school down at the railway line – I tasted it and thought I was going to die.

“It was the typical thing of wanting to be one of the cool kids and it was only when I got to college that I took it up properly but everyone smoked back then and you were a strange person if you didn’t,” says the 30-year-old telesales executive who admits spending thousands of pounds over the years on her habit.

“I smoke at least ten a day but if I’m going out socially, it gets out of control and I can spend about £70 a week on smoking, money that could go on other things.”

Inspired by the high profile Stoptober campaign, Lizzie will be stubbing out her last cigarette and turning her back on the evil weed for good, using e-cigarettes and nicotine lozenges to help her along the way.

At the same time, the 30-year-old from Crook will also stay sober for October in a bid to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Care and improve her health and fitness ahead of her wedding next year.

The bride-to-be is sick of the toll of smoking and drinking on her health and lifestyle and thinks giving up the fags and booze will bring a host of benefits as well as set a good example to ten-year-old son Rhys and her three step-children.

She says: “I don’t like smoking outside as people look at you, I don’t like the smell or the taste it leaves in my mouth, I’m constantly chewing gum and I don’t even like being around people who smoke.

“I’m really into my fitness and I’m getting married next year so wanted to slim down a bit but I’ve been finding it really difficult as, because of smoking, I can only do so much at the gym and my stamina’s not great.

“It gives me a bad head in the morning, I don’t sleep very well and the kids don’t like it – my oldest hears the adverts on the radio and asks me if I’m going to end up like the people in them.

“It makes me feel awful and I’d hate it if they took up smoking – I’d be a hypocrite to have a go at them but I try to explain why not to get started in the first place and I want to be a good influence on them.”

Lizzie has quit before – she managed to stop smoking when pregnant with her son but took it up again months later.

However, she is determined that September 30, 2014 will mark the last day she’ll ever smoke – no matter how tetchy she gets as a result.

“I can go a few days without smoking and it doesn’t bother me but it’s the routine and the social aspect of it, like going out or having a cigarette break at work that will be a challenge.

“It’s all about breaking that routine and I’m probably going to be much more tetchy for a couple of weeks but I’m really determined and documenting it all in the paper will help as I’ve got something to prove and I know everyone’s watching.

“My friends probably don’t think I can do it but I want to prove them wrong and it’ll feel brilliant if I crack it for good.”

In a bid to encourage others to follow her example, Lizzie will be writing about her battle to give up smoking and drinking throughout October.

She says: “I want to encourage people to jump on the bandwagon and join in with Stoptober – most of my friends smoke and so do a lot of people my age and the older you get the more you risk getting severe health problems.

“It’s about time I stopped – I’m not getting anything out of it so why do it? When I was younger, I thought it was cool but nowadays it’s not as acceptable to walk down the street smoking and at the end of the day, I want to set a good example to my kids.”

Readers can stay up to date with Lizzie’s attempt to quit smoking by following her blog, launching here soon at northernecho.co.uk or following @loopyloulou_27 on Twitter.

To sponsor her attempt to go sober for October, visit: gosober.org.uk/profile/elizabethhill30.