For twenty seven years Anan Qasem smoked a packet of cigarettes each day.
But he remembers the night he had his last ever smoke while playing tennis.
“I played my first game and I start feeling heavy on my chest. One of my friends when he saw me coming out of the court he knew, he knew that this is a heart attack,” Anan Qasem said.
“The doctor was telling me that if you smoke again that means you're going to die,” he said.
Anan was part of a high number of men and women from middle eastern backgrounds who smoke.
The current percentage of Australians who smoke daily is 19.9 per cent, but for those born in the Middle East it's 23.2 per cent, the highest of any foreign-born group.
And while for national average is low, in some communities the cultural norms on smoking can vary.
Dr Vinh Binh Lieu is from the Vietnamese Medical Association and said smoking in Vietnam is connected to ideas of masculinity and image.
“When I was young I been told by people that if you are a man, you have to smoke,” Dr Lieu said.
Smoking looks like a fashion or tradition when I was in Vietnam,” he said.
In what they call “Little Vietnam” - Sydney's Cabramatta - there's no shortage of “fashionable” smokers.
A marquee in the suburb's centre has been employing several means of encouraging people to kick the habit though and education an awareness campaign.
The methods vary because communities vary.
Sean Appoo, the Tabacco Control Manager said indigenous communities have the highest rates of smoking in Australia.
“A lot of indigenous people don't have that high chemical need to have nicotine,” Mr Appoo said.
It's a lot more the social aspects and certain social situations where they would normally have a cigarette and that's some of the habit things that they really struggle with,” he said.
It's hoped the campaign will reach out to those communities with heavy smokers, despite the cultural and social divides.
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