Category: News

Lana Simons, a Chapel Hill Transit employee, has been tobacco free for 2½ years! She says it’s a “nicer way to live,” not having cigarettes as part of her life, and she is proud of herself for doing it.

Howard Sutton, clinical support technician in the Department of Anesthesia, enrolled in the Tobacco Free Tar Heels program three years ago. Today he is tobacco free. When Howard Sutton enrolled in the Tobacco Free Tar Heels (TFTH) program three years ago, stress in his life seemed to be the biggest...

When nursing assistant Rebecca Langham enrolled in UNC Health Care System’s Tobacco Free Tar Heels (TFTH) program, she had been smoking a pack of cigarettes daily since she was 16 years old. Today, thanks to TFTH and her own personal dedication, she's tobacco free.

Robb English, the Aquatics Supervisor in Chapel Hill’s Parks and Recreation Department, dipped almost a can of tobacco a day when he came to the Wellness at Work Tobacco Free Employee Program. As a teenager who played sports, Robb says that dipping tobacco was part of the culture, less overt...

Smoking on and off since I was thirteen, I’d tried every trick in the book to stop. Every attempt ended in failure, whether it was stopping cold turkey or gradually with the help of medication. I became, as the old joke goes, an expert on quitting. After all, I’d done...

What made you decide to quit smoking? A few things made me quit. Mostly I did it for my wife. But price and working at the hospital were contributing factors to quitting this time. What was the hardest part about quitting? Initially the hardest thing was quitting itself. The habit...

When Robert Jenkins came into UNC Health Care System’s Tobacco Free Tar Heels (TFTH) program, he had been smoking since he was 15 years old (“too long,” he said). Like many teens, it was the “cool factor” that led him to smoke. He shared that he was so sick of...

Tyron Edwards, or T.Y., as he is known, entered the Wellness @ Work Tobacco Free Employee Program soon after it begin in fall 2011. He smoked between 1–2 packs of cigarettes per day, and had been smoking since he was 16 years old. He reported being “just tired of smoking.”...

Although he was not pressured by his family to quit, he knew that quitting was the best thing for him and would help him to set a better example for his children and grandchildren. “Why do I need these cigarettes?” Pendergraph asked himself. “They are just a crutch.” Bob Pendergraph,...

Her three pregnancies provided Sibila with motivation for being tobacco free. Yet, she found herself sliding back and smoking again after her children were born. She considered herself to be an on and off smoker, with periods of abstinence followed by periods of smoking, especially when she felt stressed or...