My story

We can tell you a lot about the e-cigarette and its successes - but are we really credible?

From our point of view, there are people who can explain much more convincingly what the e-cigarette has brought them and why they actually ended up with it. Here we tell stories that our customers have been kind enough to share with us - if you too would like to tell your story (and be rewarded for doing so with a little surprise when it is published), just get in touch!

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Walter F. (born 1965)

In March 2013, during what was actually a harmless examination, I learned that I had stomach cancer. The tumor was already advanced and it was necessary to act quickly. It soon became clear that I would only have a chance of survival if I underwent chemotherapy as well as surgery. While the chemo started quickly, my doctor informed me that I had to stop smoking before the surgery. I had smoked for about 30 years at that point, destroying about 2 packs of cigarettes per day. I had also tried to quit smoking from time to time in the past, but unfortunately always unsuccessfully. I had tried all kinds of strategies from chewing gum to medication to hypnosis, but nothing had worked. And now there was no choice - the cigarette had to go!

My doctor understood how hard this was going to be for me, yet he wouldn't let up. He explained to me that the cure would depend largely on whether I continued to smoke - and you can imagine what he said about that. Then he gave me the tip to try an e-cigarette - a product that was slowly becoming more and more common in Switzerland as well. I bought myself a Joyetech.... and after a few days I was already in despair again, because I noticed that it didn't work with it either. But then a good friend who was traveling in the USA brought me an e-cigarette called Juul. So I halfway optimistically tried my luck with it - and lo and behold, it worked! It seemed like I had finally found something that helped me.

My friend organized me a few more devices and lots of pods so I had plenty of supplies. I managed to swear off cigarettes with it and my doctor was thrilled. Thanks to the Juul, I stopped smoking a few weeks before surgery - and I didn't start afterwards either.

My surgery went well, although the fight against cancer lasted a little longer. Today, I no longer have a stomach, but I am otherwise healthy so far. The e-cigarette has freed me from one addiction, but led to another. I can't be without my Juul today, but think it's all better than a cigarette. After all, today I can easily get what I need, since e-cigarettes are becoming more and more popular in Switzerland, too, and are available everywhere. And I know that without an e-cig I would start smoking again - so I choose the lesser evil here and am deeply grateful to my doctor and my friend for having led me to the e-cigarette and thus hope for me!

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Cédric (born 1987)

I experienced one of the darkest days of my life in 2019, when my father died completely unexpectedly of a heart attack. My father was always a role model for me and after I had completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and worked for a few years, I had joined my father's company just a few months before. The cooperation went great and it was really fun to run the small company as a father and son duo and to develop new ideas. I can still feel the proud look on my father's face when we completed another job together. And I still sometimes hear the sound of his scolding when he thought I had done something wrong, because I had done it differently. I also particularly remember our smoke breaks during work, when we stood outside the workshop and made the world a better place. My father was a very heavy smoker and, following his example, I also smoked for many years. Of course, we sometimes discussed that it would probably be better not to smoke anymore. He usually waved it off and said that if he wasn't allowed to do that anymore, what pleasures would he have left?

My parents were divorced and my father was completely his own lord and master - he always did what he enjoyed. So he had teamed up with a few colleagues and together they were all rebuilding the interiors of 5 motor homes they had bought together. Each of the men could contribute important things to the build and the plan was that they all wanted to go on a big trip together in 2025 and really enjoy retirement. When Dad told of his travel plans, his eyes lit up and you could feel his enthusiasm. It was clear to him and his buddies that they all had a horse nature and would then be in top shape. A snifter now and then and the few cigarettes wouldn't change that - on the contrary, they still support the enjoyment!

But in July 2019, my father's daydreams came to an abrupt end. When he didn't show up at work in the morning, I still thought that he must have overslept - something completely new. I devoted myself to work and forgot everything around me - until I realized at noon that he was still not there. I tried to call him, but when he didn't pick up the phone, I got worried. So I went to his home in the neighboring village in the afternoon. When he did not respond to my ringing either, a premonition came over me. I fetched his apartment key from the neighbor and entered the apartment. I found him in the bedroom. He was lying on the floor in front of his bed. He looked almost peaceful, even though his body temperature quickly made it clear that he was no longer alive. In a complete state of shock, I didn't notice anything and it wasn't until hours later that I realized I would never make plans with my father again. The doctor, who diagnosed a heart attack as the cause of death, said succinctly that one should not be surprised, given the lifestyle that my father had led. He was overweight, didn't exercise and smoked like a brush - what would I have expected?

After my father left me, I began to wonder. I regretted that now he couldn't make his dreams come true. And I thought about a healthier lifestyle. I wanted to live healthier from now on, so that I wouldn't have to do the same someday. I joined a running group in my village. And I went to a specialty store for e-cigarettes to get advice. The memory of my father gives me the strength to live healthily today. I switched to e-cigarettes and am in the process of reducing my nicotine intake according to the step-down system explained to me at happy-smoke. My goal is to be completely smoke and vapor free by the second anniversary of Dad's death then - I kind of owe him that.

I don't know how much the cigarettes had to do with his death - that was never further clarified. But I do know that a healthy lifestyle is something worth striving for, and I'm glad to be on that path today, even though I miss my dad every single day.

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 Patrick ( born 1990)

May 18, 2018, right after my wedding, was one of the happiest days of my life, because on that day my son Ben was born. My wife Jasmine and I had planned the family very consciously and felt very lucky that it had worked out so quickly with the offspring. In our environment we had observed several times that it had not worked out so easily with the baby and so we were actually prepared to have to wait a little. But far from it, as soon as we decided to make our family complete, Jasi was already pregnant.

Of course, we wanted to be the best parents we could be and attended numerous courses on childbirth preparation and parenting during our pregnancy. My wife devoured guidebooks on having a baby and we thought we were ready. Until at some point the topic turned to smoking.

I had been smoking since I was 18, not a lot, but regularly. And right now I felt the great need to light up a cig every time everything got a bit out of hand. And these moments were numerous... would I be a good father? Would I be able to feed my family? Would the baby be healthy? Numerous questions made me nervous - and nicotine calmed my nerves.

But my wife had not done her research for nothing and she was quite clear in her statement: there should be no smoking around the child under any circumstances!

So one fine day she dragged me to happy-smoke, having made a consultation appointment there in advance. I knew it wouldn't be that easy to give up the cig that I loved so much right now - but I wanted to do my part for our healthy little family. I had made half-hearted attempts to quit with nicotine gum before - but when I had gained a lot of weight then, I gave up right away. I couldn't let anything like that happen to me now!

That day I bought my first starter set. The change had worked out quite well, until the day of the birth. There were some kind of complications and the birth already lasted hours, during which my wife became more and more exhausted - and I more and more anxious. The midwife took care of me as well as she could, but at some point she wanted to give me a short break and sent me out. And because I was completely out of it, I actually asked one of the smokers outside the hospital if I could bum a cig. Of course he gave it to me and actually I wanted to take a pleasurable drag on it to calm my nerves. But the now unfamiliar tobacco didn't taste good to me, and while I tried to pull on it anyway, it shot through me like a bolt of lightning: what was I doing here? My wife was in there fighting for our little son and I knew nothing better than to smoke now, even though I had promised not to do so anymore?

With a guilty conscience, I went back into the birthing room. Jasmine knew immediately what had happened (well, the smell had probably given me away). But she didn't say a word.

A short time later Ben saw the light of day - and he was fine! Grateful and exhausted, I drove home that evening.

The next day, when I went to the hospital to visit my little family, my wife surprised me with a gift package. I unwrapped it in amazement - and found the beautiful DotMod e-cigarette that I had been eyeing for some time! Apparently Jasi had called happy-smoke and explained that they urgently had to "save" me - and the happy-smoke team then organized for the e-cig to come to the hospital as soon as possible - the boss himself brought it over together with a little teddy bear.

Ben is now 3 years old - and he lives in a smoke-free household. Passive smoking is not an issue for him, nor for my wife. And me... I'm still hanging on to my DotMod, consciously and pleasurably vaping, while we're already back in other circumstances....

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 Nadine (born 1989)

came to e-cigarettes in England during my studies. There it was common practice to vaporize. I was already a smoker and very nervous before the semester exams. On a fun evening together with some fellow students, a joint suddenly made the rounds. The others seemed to think it was normal, but I knew from previous experiences that it would make me sick.

When I was still thinking back and forth whether the relaxation would be worth fighting with some nausea, Marc pulled me away. It was he who then gave me his e-cigarette, along with a neck massage. Immediately I became calmer. To this day I don't know if it was because of him, the massage, or the e-cig, but he told me much later that if I had smelled like a cigarette, I certainly would never have gotten my first kiss from him that night.

I finished my studies long ago and Marc and I now live and work in Zurich - and we are both convinced vapers!