Share your story
Most people who smoke in Scotland want to quit.
How do they do it? Where do they start?
We're looking for people who have quit smoking to provide insight and guidance to those who want to live that same smoke-free lifestyle.
If you’ve quit smoking, you’ve learned things about the experience that can lend valuable understanding. You know what can help overcome nicotine cravings, what kept you going on difficult days, and what finally helped you quit successfully. These small, practical insights can make a huge difference to someone who is trying to quit right now.
By sharing what worked for you whether it was
- Support from Quit Your Way
- Setting a quit date and changing routines
- Using stop-smoking medication or aids
or simply by finding your reason to stop and using it to keep you motivated, you could help someone feel less alone and more confident about trying.
We’d really appreciate you sharing insights into what helped you quit smoking. Your experience could guide and encourage others across Scotland on their journey to living a smoke-free life.
Why share your story?
If you want to share your stop smoking story with us, it can be used in a range of potential ways (always only ever with your permission) to encourage other people in Scotland to try giving up smoking.
Online
- Quotations from your story could be featured on our website, social media channels or other information resources to urge people to begin or re-start taking positive steps on their quit smoking journeys. Your story can be anonymised but, for people who are happy to be named and shown, it'd be great if we can take your photo or even interview you for a short video.
In person
- We could support you to give a short talk about your quit smoking experience to our charity's supporters or people/organisations we work with to ensure other people can be supported to give up smoking.
In the news
- We could also write up your story and, with your permission and after you have checked it, supply it to your local newspaper to raise awareness in your community about services available for people aiming to stop smoking. We would always support you to speak with a journalist, if they have any follow-up questions.
Supporting you
We know it can be an emotional experience to share your personal story so we’ll be there with you every step of the way. We're grateful to those people who give up their time to talk us through their circumstances, and offer a contribution to say thank you. We will always explain exactly what will be involved with each opportunity and, if you have any concerns or questions, we will provide support and reassurance.
- We offer people who share their story and agree to be photographed and/or video recorded to appear in our campaign promotions (e.g. on ASH Scotland’s website, social media and possibly in their regional/local media) a £30 voucher in recognition of the time and effort that is given.
- When we identify an opportunity for which we think your story might be suitable, we will contact you to check that you are still happy for us to use it. We realise that circumstances can change so if you do not want us to proceed in taking the opportunity or have simply changed your mind about us using your story at all, that will be absolutely fine.
- If you're happy for us to use your story to potentially generate media interest, we would write up your story as a news release or feature story and ensure that you get the chance to check what is drafted before we send it to any journalist. We would also only ever set up a conversation for you with a journalist if we have your permission. You won't be asked to do anything that you are not comfortable with and we will speak with you and the journalist through the entire process.
- Most journalists will indicate to you or us about when your story will be published so that you can tell all your friends and family to look out and read all about it! Due to deadline time constraints for journalists, it is not always possible to see the final story before it appears in print. In our extensive experience, however, any errors are likely to be very small.
Can I remain anonymous?
Most opportunities to share your story with media will require you to be named and usually photographed. If you wish to tell your story but remain anonymous, please still get in touch as there may be other ways to raise vital awareness whereby you can remain anonymous.