Nurse Gives Freedom from Smoking

By Megan Dean

When Phyllis Heald’s colleague told her about the opportunity to become a smoking cessation facilitator for the American Lung Association®, she knew it was a perfect fit for her. Phyllis, a Registered Nurse for 20 years, wanted to educate people on ways to live a healthier lifestyle.

Phyllis lost her mother to lung cancer 30 years ago. Her mother had been a smoker all of her adult life. If Phyllis could help other people stop smoking, she knew she could prevent them from dying of lung cancer, like her mother, and help them live a better life, free from smoking.

Phyllis attended a two-day training to become a facilitator and now teaches Freedom From Smoking®, a program designed by the American Lung Association®. She teaches the program at the Simmons YMCA through a partnership with Carolinas Healthcare System. Phyllis also travels to businesses and other community groups to teach the class. The program is seven weeks long and includes 8, 90-minute sessions and 24-hour smoking cessation support for participants. The program costs $75 to $150. Phyllis routinely seeks out funding to make the class available to those who want to attend, but cannot pay the registration fee. Phyllis has been teaching Freedom From Smoking® for seven years with impressive results. About 60% of her participants stop smoking by their targeted quit date. Phyllis said the most challenging part of the class is learning to overcome nicotine addiction.

“If you are a smoker, nicotine is always on your mind, it is associated with everything you do, it’s your best friend, it’s your comfort, it always accepts you, it is there with you through the good times and the bad,” Phyllis said.

Nicotine addiction is also “influenced by your peers, parents, and other family members that use tobacco,” added Phyllis. Heald said that smokers have “practiced the behavior so well for so long that smoking becomes an automatic behavior, such as breathing, eating, and sleeping.” The smokers in the program have to unlearn this behavior and conquer their nicotine addiction to be successful. Phyllis adds, “Some smokers never get over their nicotine addiction, but they learn to control it.”

For additional information on how to enroll in Freedom From Smoking® or other smoking cessation classes through the YMCA, contact your local Carolinas Medical Center Health Center at (704) 512-3820.