More than 235 smokers and former smokers have shared their experiences as THR Global\u2019s
\n#WeAreTheEvidence campaign puts lived experience at the centre of the tobacco-harm-reduction conversation.
\nSouth Africa \u2013 September 2026: For years, the message to smokers has been straightforward: quit.
\nYet the experiences of hundreds of smokers and former smokers suggest that walking away from
\ncigarettes is rarely that simple.
\nInsights from THR Global\u2019s #WeAreTheEvidence campaign show that stress, anxiety and depression
\nare among the most cited reasons people start or continue smoking, with 32.8% of participants
\nidentifying these factors in their personal journeys.
\nThe finding points to a wider challenge in smoking cessation: wanting to quit does not always
\ntranslate into success. A South African study involving 18,208 adults found that 74.6% of current
\ncombustible smokers had previously attempted to quit, while only 42.8% of those who had tried had
\never used a cessation aid.
\nThat gap between intention and success is what THR Global is seeking to better understand.
\nThrough #WeAreTheEvidence, the organisation has documented more than 235 first-hand accounts
\nfrom smokers and former smokers, capturing why people smoked, what made quitting difficult and
\nthe different approaches they used to move away from cigarettes.
\nThe stories show there is no single quitting experience.
\nNdaphi began smoking in high school through peer influence and continued for 16 years. Over time,
\nhe came to recognise the financial and personal impact of smoking, including the effect it had on
\nthose closest to him, before eventually moving away from cigarettes through harm-reduction
\nalternatives.
\nLaksha\u2019s experience was different. Nicotine pouches did not work for her because they failed to
\nreplace the hand-to-mouth behaviour she associated with smoking. During her interview, she also
\nlearned how her smoking had affected a friendship, with time together often interrupted by smoke
\nbreaks.
\nThese experiences illustrate why THR Global believes smoking cessation cannot be reduced to
\nwillpower alone. Stress, behaviour, routines and personal circumstances can all shape a smoker\u2019s
\nability to quit.
\nThe testimony archive also provides insight into what participants say helped them. Among THR
\nGlobal\u2019s first 210 formal testimonials, 95.7% reported using vaping as part of their journey away
\nfrom cigarettes.
\nTHR Global says these self-reported experiences should not replace clinical evidence but can add
\nimportant human context to it.
\nRecent research continues to examine the role of harm-reduction approaches in smoking cessation.
\nThe Cochrane review on electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation found high-certainty evidence<\/p>\n
Confidential – Not for Public Consumption or
\nDistribution<\/p>\n
that nicotine-containing e-cigarettes increased quit rates compared with nicotine-replacement
\ntherapy.
\nA separate 2026 review published in Addiction similarly found that estimates across multiple
\nsystematic reviews consistently favoured nicotine-containing e-cigarettes over interventions
\nincluding nicotine-replacement therapy, non-nicotine e-cigarettes and other forms of support.
\nMental wellbeing is another important part of the picture. A systematic review and meta-analysis
\npublished in the British Medical Journal found that smoking cessation was associated with
\nimprovements in anxiety, depression, stress, psychological quality of life and positive affect.
\nTaken together, the research and personal testimonies raise a broader question: whose voices are
\nincluded when decisions about smoking and tobacco harm reduction are made?
\nFor THR Global, people living through these experiences should be part of that conversation.
\n#WeAreTheEvidence is designed to make lived experience accessible to consumers, researchers,
\npublic-health stakeholders, regulators and the media, allowing decision-makers to understand
\nsmoking and quitting not only through clinical studies and statistics, but through the experiences of
\npeople directly affected.
\nThat call comes as international thinking around tobacco harm reduction continues to evolve. In a
\n2024 New England Journal of Medicine commentary, Harvard Medical School professor Dr Nancy
\nRigotti examined whether evidence around electronic cigarettes as cessation tools had reached a
\n\u201ctipping point\u201d for the medical and public-health community.
\nFor THR Global, however, the central argument is not that every smoker needs the same solution. It
\nis that people trying to move away from cigarettes need to be heard.
\nBy putting more than 235 experiences on record, #WeAreTheEvidence is creating a clearer picture of
\nwhy people smoke, why quitting can be difficult and what smokers themselves say helped them
\nmove away from cigarettes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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