A NORTH-East woman who managed to quit her 40-a-day smoking habit yesterday unveiled the £2,000 kitchen she bought with the money she saved.

Margaret Speight, 43, of Hardwick, Stockton, has saved the money she used to spend on Lambert & Butler cigarettes every day since she gave up smoking on February 1 last year.

On her new kitchen is a plaque which reads: "This kitchen is sponsored by Lambert & Butler".

Mrs Speight, who has two small boys, said: "I just did it for a bit of a laugh.

"It's a way of reminding me where the money came from and of making sure I don't go back to smoking."

She started smoking at 13 and consumed two packets of 20 cigarettes every day until she made a promise to her mother, who died of cancer last year, that she would kick the habit.

Mrs Speight sought help from the Tees Smoking Cessation Service and was put on the anti-smoking pill, Zyban.

Karen Galloway, smoking cessation link advisor with North Tees Primary Care Trust, said: "Margaret has done very well indeed. She was extremely keen to quit when I first met her, and it was always her stated aim to get a new kitchen out of the money she would save from quitting smoking.

"I couldn't believe it when she phoned me to tell me it was all finished. The plaque is a nice touch that reminds her of how much she has achieved in successfully quitting smoking."

Mrs Speight, a governor and cleaner at Harrow Gate School, Stockton, said she was still saving her smoking money for new carpets for her children's bedrooms.

"It is so nice being able to improve the house. I don't know where I got the money from to smoke the amount I did," she said.