Celebrity Quitters

Channel five series followed 5 celebrities…

… as they attempted to quit smoking for good.

The five smokers who vowed to quit for life and gave it a go were Chloe Madeley, Derek Acorah, John Burton Race, Linda Robson and Paul Danan. The question is, did they all have what it takes to stay the distance and see it through?

Chloe Madeley

Chloe, daughter of TV couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, model, tv presenter and freelance journalist, has been trying to quit the habit for a while. Chloe first started to smoke in her teens. She has decided to finally stop and her attempt was followed in this ten part tv series on channel five.

Her cigarette smoking was disliked by her boyfriend who was less inclined to kiss her at the times she had a cigarette. Her best friend also suffered from asthma and so the secondary effects of Chloe’s smoking were endangering the health of her friend. The decision was made with the help of some shocking statistics about how dangerous smoking is to health.

In fact the figures are that one in every two smokers will suffer a smoking related disease. When she thought about the number of friends she has who smoke it shocked her to think that half of them would go on to develop a smoking related illness.

Chloe tried Nicotine Replacement Therapy Or NRT for short via a cigarette shaped inhalator that releases mini doses of nicotine. It is safer than regular cigarettes because it is without carbon monoxide and does not contain any dangerous tar. It helps by offering a gradual weaning off of addictive nicotine cravings.

Derek Acorah

Controversial figure Derek Acorah is an English clairvoyant medium who many have considered to be the number one TV psychic in the UK and many others a TV charlatan.

He has made many popular personal appearances on TV and radio and to sell out audiences at live shows across the world. Others argue he is a fake and he has been parodied more than once by the sceptics who were not overly impressed by his recent attempt at a live seance with the late Michael Jackson.

You need to make up your own mind…

But one thing we know for sure and that is that as a smoker he was invited to take part in “Celebrity Quitters”. He had already tried many different methods to quit, including nicotine patches and acupuncture and  hoped that he could finally stop smoking through the spotlight challenge of this program. He was the heaviest smoker in the program regularly smoking upwards of 40 cigarettes a day

John Burton Race

John Burton Race has been a regular reality TV participant, maybe best known for taking part in “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” as the camp’s main cook and the channel 4 series French Leave”.

He is a well known Michelin starred Chef and owns a number of restaurants . Although he suffered the stress of two divorces and a bankruptcy he still managed to  pull through and has a number of books to his name as well as various TV appearances

Linda Robson

Linda Robson, best known as one of the stars in the series, “Birds of a Feather”  said:

“I’ve tried to give up many times… But this time I’m hoping I’ll be able to kick the habit for good.”

Did she have what it takes to stay the course? With a family history of smoking related diseases such as heart disease, her goal was to reduce this risk for herself and live long enough to enjoy watching her grandchildren grow to adulthood

Paul Danan

Actor Paul Danan is best known as an ex actor from the soap series, ‘Hollyoaks’, which he was part of for 4 years up to 2001 and more recently received an award  for funniest reality TV personality. A contestant in Love island and other reality TV shows which he blames for ruining his acting career, here he is again having a go at  quitting smoking, following shock test results which showed his ‘lung age’ as 46 yrs (15 more years than his actual age now).

The show followed the day to day challenges of these five star volunteers as they faced life as a ‘non-smoker’

One of the positives I see in this TV entertainment series is that it served to highlight the issue of smoking and maybe will encourage other people to give it a go too.

Hopefully it is be more valuable than just pure and simple gossip.