Need a nudge to finally quit smoking? Perhaps a snazzy new car will be enough of an incentive. It certainly was for great-grandma Pauline O’Connor, 70, who has finally ditched the 20-cigarettes-a-day habit she’d stuck to for more than 50 years. With the money she has saved from no longer buying cigs, Pauline was able to buy herself a flame-red Audi A3 convertible, and she’s been loving life in the fast lane ever since.
Pauline grew up in a time when smoking ‘made you look big’, and bought her first cigarette for ‘thruppence’ when she was just 11 years old. As a young adult, the retired clerical worker of Amberstone, East Sussex, quickly became addicted. Soon, her life revolved around smoking, with Pauline getting through 20 cigerettes a day.
But when the great-grandmother of 13 lost her dad to a smoking-related condition, she knew she needed to make a change. A single ‘miraculous’ neuroscience-based therapy session helped her kick the habit for good. And to have something to show for her efforts, Pauline stashed away the money she would have spent on cigarettes and bought a fancy car. Pauline, who separated from her former husband, Tony, also now 70, several years ago, said: ‘I started putting money away and I was looking for a car. ‘I bought the sports car because I was feeling so much younger in myself. I felt more healthy and more alive.
‘My only regret was that I didn’t do it sooner!
‘My dad always smoked roll-ups and when I was 10, he used to roll me up a Rizla paper to hold, like a pretend cigarette.
‘I wanted to be as big as my dad. He was only a little man, but he was the best man God could have put on this earth.
‘I used to say, “Oh Dad, roll me up a cigarette’” and he would. He always had a roll-up dangling from his lip. ‘Everybody was doing it. It was just the known thing! Smoking was everywhere. You could buy one over the counter for about thruppence. I used to do that and I thought I was big! It was the thing to do.’ (Metro)