The 2012 Quit and Win Campaign attracted a record-high 31,067 teams of participants to stay smoke-free for 4 weeks. The sponsor invited 7 winning teams for successfully quitting smoking, including one that plans to use the prize money for travel to an international conference, to attend the awarding ceremony on June 10th.
“I started smoking at school out of curiosity and peer encouragement and influence, and later on my cigarette consumption increased as nearly 90% of the male colleagues being heavy smokers,” said 43-year-old Ming-Zhi Qiu (邱明志), who used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day, up to 40 in some days.
Qiu met 18-year-old Jia-Peng Lin (林嘉鵬), who was the son of his wife’s friend. Lin was trying to go to a leadership training camp in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region> during summer, but lacked money to go, so he paired up with Qiu and entered the contest. He planned to make three calls at each meal time to remind his partner to quit smoking.
Another winning team was a couple in love. The smoker was 24-year-old Jian-Wei Li, who smoked 20 cigarettes per day, with some days increased to 60. Because of his heavy smoking, he coughed so much at night with the symptom of difficulty breathing. Li did try to quit for 3 days in response to the request from his girlfriend, but his first attempt to quit smoking for 3 days had ended in failure due to the nicotine addition
“I’ve made up my mind to quit smoking again when I heard of the contest. The first 2 weeks were very unpleasant and I was irritable,” said Li. Upon his successful cessation, Li got a proposal from his girlfriend to marry her announced within 2 years during the award ceremony. Li won not only health, but his girlfriend’s recognition and lifetime commitment.