SMOKERS across Trafford are being urged to kick the habit as part of the Stoptober challenge.
The innovative 28-day Public Health England stop smoking initiative begins on October 1.
This year, Greater Manchester’s 400,000 smokers are being told that specialist help is on hand to encourage them quit.
Stoptober is providing a free online Personal Quit Plan which helps smokers find the right support for them. Options include
Face-to-face support, nicotine replacement therapies and e-cigarettes.
People who get expert support from local stop smoking services are up to four times as likely to quit successfully as those who try to quit unaided
To date, Stoptober has driven 1.7 million quit attempts and quitting success rates are at an all-time high. Stoptober also offers a range of extra free quitting support including a Stoptober app, Facebook messenger, daily e mails and Stoptober online communities.
Those who stop smoking for 28 days and longer will begin to experience financial, physical and health benefits.
Specialist personal stop smoking support is available for every person who smokes in Greater Manchester. Call free on 0300 123 1044, Monday-Friday 9am-8pm and weekends between 11am and 4pm.
Judith Lloyd, Trafford Council’s Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing, said: “We would like to help Trafford’s smokers kick the habit. If you are a smoker, quitting is the best thing you can do for your health and the health of those around you.
“One in every two people who smoke dies of a smoking-related disease. Smoking is linked with 16 types of cancer, COPD, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and diabetes.
Nationally, smoking causes 13 deaths a day – that’s 4,500 a year. This figure is frightening and very high, we need to get it down. The Stoptober campaign will certainly help with this.”
Sarah Price, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership’s Director for Population Health, said: “As Stoptober approaches we are urging people to have a look at the wide-range of support that’s out there for them and grab it with both hands.
“If you’ve made the decision to stop smoking then we would urge you to not try and go it alone, and instead increase your chances of success by getting support in place. Give our helpline a call on 0300 123 1044 or check out the Stoptober Personal Quit Plan and set a date to quit.”
She added: “We want Greater Manchester to be the first city region in Europe to make smoking history, an aim that is supported by four out of five Greater Manchester residents. This may seem like a tall order, but with all the practical on-the-ground help that’s offered to smokers we are doing everything we can to make this a reality.”
Search ‘Stoptober’ to get your free Personal Quit Plan and find the support that’s right for you.
For more information, go to https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/stoptober/home, call 0161 625 7463 or email gm.hsccomms@nhs.net.
CASE STUDY:
FORMER smoker Leigh Webber quit to beat early stages lung cancer – and is urging people to get themselves some quitting support so they can enjoy being free from cigarettes too.
Leigh Webber, 56, of Timperley, who used to smoke up to 20 a day, made the decision that she was finally going to give up because she hated being so dependent on something.
The teaching assistant said: “I had always enjoyed smoking and over the years I had brainwashed myself that I enjoyed it and needed it!! When people used to say about the money it cost, I would try to reason about other things I don’t spend money on!
“During the last 10 years of smoking I had tried giving up a couple of times, both with patches, once for 6 weeks and the other time for 10 weeks. When I look back I was trying to give up physically but had not realised how much more there was to it, for me anyway!
At the age of 54, and nearly 40 years of smoking, Leigh decided it was time to finally quit: “I just decided I didn't want to be a smoker any longer. I didn't like the thought that I was so dependent on something, it had got more minority that socially smoked now and I started thinking that I had done enough of not really being very nice to my body.”
By reading and researching about the best ways of quitting smoking Leigh came up with a plan that she felt would work for her. Alongside giving up smoking she also began eating more healthily, and took up running – she had her final cigarette in November 2016.
Over the previous few months, a nagging pain in her back led her to seek medical advice. was devastated to find out that that she had early stages cancer and a small tumour had been discovered. Leigh had an operation to remove the top part of her lobe.
She said: “I was lucky, 80% of people when diagnosed with lung cancer are inoperable! I really felt like I’d been given a second chance.”
Leigh urges anyone still smoking to give quitting a go: “If you can REALLY imagine how good and proud you would feel to not be a smoker any more, then research as much as you can, find and realise the main thing is that we brainwashed ourselves that we enjoy or need to smoke! Get to love yourself enough to realise you deserve better!”
Posted on Friday 28th September 2018