Oct. 27, 2014 | A golden wedding anniversary isn’t the only milestone Janet Daughenbaugh is celebrating this year. She’s also celebrating her new life as a nonsmoker.

“I started smoking before I got married. That was more than 50 years ago,” she said. A two-time breast cancer survivor, Daughenbaugh recently began experiencing shortness of breath and wheezing. The thought of developing emphysema and requiring oxygen around the clock is what spurred her desire to quit.

About that time, she found out about the new Freedom From Smoking support group set to begin at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. Seven weeks later, she said she’s kicked the habit, something her family has wanted for many years.

“My husband quit smoking 20 years ago, and no one else in my family smokes. They’ve all wanted me to quit for a long time,” she said.

Freedom From Smoking is a free seven-week support program offered by the UAMS Cancer Institute for anyone who wants to quit smoking. The program’s educational material is provided by the American Lung Association.

Daughenbaugh was part of the first session, which concluded Oct. 15. Another session begins Oct. 22 and will be held from 3-4:30 p.m. each Wednesday for seven weeks in the Cancer Institute’s Patient Support Pavilion. The fourth week — also known as “quit week” — has two sessions.

“In this program, we don’t expect anyone to quit on day one. We spend the first three weeks getting our members to a place where they’re ready to quit,” said Patricia Franklin, an advanced practice registered nurse (A.P.R.N.) who works with lung cancer patients at the UAMS Cancer Institute. Franklin leads the group and is certified as a tobacco treatment specialist. For information about the program or to sign up, contact Franklin at (501) 944-5934 or plfranklin@uams.edu. New sessions will begin on a regular basis.

Two of the group’s participants already had failed experiences with quitting, a situation that Franklin said can actually be helpful. “If you’ve tried to quit in the past and been unsuccessful, you already know what doesn’t work for you. This time you can try a new strategy,” she said.

Group participants Priscilla Gray and Dinah Cross both smoked for years, quit and went back to the habit. “After 19 years of not smoking, I thought I would have just one cigarette. That was six years ago,” Cross said.

Gray, a UAMS employee, also picked the habit back up after a nine-year hiatus. She has now turned to saving the money she would have spent on cigarettes each week. In her first 21 days as a nonsmoker, she saved $169.

Gray and Cross also look forward to starting a new habit together: bicycling. Physical activity is encouraged as part of the Freedom From Smoking program, as is developing a buddy system among the participants.

“The group atmosphere is important to participants’ success,” Franklin said. “We’re all cheering each other on.”

In addition to Franklin, the group benefits from hearing first-hand stories and tips for success from former smokers, dietitians, pulmonary APRNs and pharmacists.

Thoracic surgeon Matthew Steliga, M.D., had the vision for a smoking cessation program at UAMS when he arrived in 2009, and Freedom From Smoking is the second phase of realizing that dream.

Now in its third year, an in-clinic cessation program also is helping people quit through one-on-one counseling. The program has shown a 70 percent short-term success rate in getting patients off tobacco.

Collaborators leading the in-clinic cessation program are UAMS College of Nursing professor Claudia Barone, Ed.D., A.P.R.N., and Erna Boone, Dr.P.H., a registered respiratory therapist and chair of the Department of Respiratory and Surgical Technologies in the UAMS College of Health Professions.

Using a face-to-face approach, the smoking cessation team meets with patients each Monday and Thursday afternoon in the seventh floor clinics at the UAMS Cancer Institute. Patients may request to participate in the program or can be referred by their physician.

“Everyone knows that smoking is terrible for your health, but it’s such a tough addiction to break. People need evidence-based support,” Steliga said.

He added that it’s not always about the possibility of dying from tobacco-related disease. Smoking also diminishes quality of life, affecting everything from your ability to taste foods to your ability to walk up a flight of stairs.

“It’s really exciting to know that we are addressing cancer at the prevention level. By quitting smoking, these folks are doing the best thing they can do for their health,” he said.