Take the Leap - make 2012 your year to quit smoking

To mark No Smoking Day, Wednesday 14th March, the Public Health Agency, PHA, is urging smokers to ‘Take the Leap’ and set a date to quit for good.

There are around 340,000 smokers in Northern Ireland aged 16 years and over, and most would really like to give up but find it hard to do so.

However, help is at hand across as there are over 600 free support services Northern Ireland for people who wish to stop smoking. These are funded by the PHA and are based in local GP surgeries, community pharmacies, hospitals, community centres and workplaces. Using specialist stop smoking support can improve your chances of successfully quitting.

There are enormous benefits of having a smoke-free life, including better health for the smoker and their families and better  finances.   A 20 - a - day smoker currently spends over £2,500 a year funding their habit. That could go towards the deposit on a house, home improvement, the deposit on a car or maybe a dream holiday.

 Gerry Bleakney, Head of Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement, PHA, said: “Stopping smoking is the single most important thing you can do for your health, but stopping is not easy. With the right advice and support you can become one of the thousands of people that manage to quit every year.

“If you quit and then relapse, accept it, work out why it happened, and focus on how you can avoid it in the future. It takes several efforts for many people to quit for good, but if you are determined, you will do it. Last year over 34,000 people decided to stop using our Stop Smoking Services and many others did so, on their own. ‘Be prepared’ is the motto for success.

“If you are motivated to ‘Take the Leap’ just lift the phone and ring the campaign helpline on 0808 812 8008 or go to www.want2stop.info . The website is packed with information and advice on stopping smoking. You can order a Quit Kit and talk to a ‘stop smoking’ adviser today or find out where you can receive free local ‘stop smoking’ support.”