Ex-Smoker Taufik Batisah Named Smoke-Free Ambassador
SINGAPORE : The Health Promotion Board has picked Taufik Batisah as its first Smoke-Free Ambassador.
It hopes the Singapore Idol, a smoker since the age of 12, can inspire others with his own story of pure determination, which helped him kick the habit in months.
For many smokers, they can only dream of being smoke free.
Taufik had never thought twice about lighting up till a few months ago.
He came down with a serious throat infection soon after winning the Idol title, as a result of smoking too much from the stress.
That was when he was faced with two choices — kick the habit or put his singing career in jeopardy.
Said Taufik, “I want to be healthier and I don’t want to die young and have throat cancer, and it’s a choice that I make for myself. If actually being an Idol, people can follow me, that would be amazing.”
In an earlier interview on Channel NewsAsia, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan had issued the challenge to Taufik to quit.
Statistics have shown that the percentage of women in the 18 to 29 age group who smoke has jumped from 5.2 percent in 1998 to 6.6 percent last year.
Said Mr Khaw, “The young people, those girls, I don’t think they look at me as their idol, but they might look towards Taufik. So I quickly checked up, is Taufik a smoker. Unfortunately Taufik is a smoker, so I got to work on Taufik because hopefully if Taufik changes his habit and he can influence hopefully thousands of young boys and girls to follow suit and drop this habit.”
That job has now landed on Taufik now that he has quit with the help of a “Quit Buddy” he could call when he felt the urge to light up.
He also went for counselling sessions.
After just a few months he managed to stub it out the smoking habit completely.
The Singapore Idol will appear in some of the Board’s quit smoking events and it hopes to get more like him to help those who want to kick the habit.
Said Taufik, “To whoever’s trying to quit smoking, it’s definitely possible!” - CNA /ct
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