This No Smoking Day, Wednesday 8 March, the No Smoking Day Coordinating Committee is urging smokers to become ‘Proud Quitters’ by using stop smoking support services available across Northern Ireland to help them quit.

Over one hundred and twenty business people from across Northern Ireland attended the fifth annual Healthy Working Lives Conference at Riddel Hall, Belfast on Thursday 2 March to explore our ageing population at work. The Age at Work conference, delivered by Business in the Community in partnership with the Public Health Agency (PHA), aimed to inform employers about the changing demographics within the workplace and encouraged them to consider the opportunities and challenges that this presents.

It’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, so the Public Health Agency (PHA) is highlighting the key signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer and urging women to talk to their GP if they think something is wrong. Dr Miriam McCarthy, Consultant in Public Health Medicine at the PHA, said: “Cancer of the ovary affects over 180 women each year in Northern Ireland and is more common in women over the age of 50.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) is using Self-Harm Awareness Day (1 March), to encourage people who are affected by self-harm to seek help. Dr Denise O’ Hagan, Public Health Consultant with the PHA, said: “People self-harm for various reasons and are usually experiencing severe emotional distress. Self-harm is when a person harms themselves through injury or poisoning. For some people, self-harm is a way of coping with and communicating their distress, but for others it can be associated with a wish to end their lives and therefore it should always be taken seriously.

It is just less than one month until No Smoking Day on Wednesday March 8 with thousands of smokers across Northern Ireland today being urged to stub out their cigarettes and become ‘Proud Quitters’. Cancer Focus Northern Ireland and the Public Health Agency (PHA) have teamed up with other organisations – all members of the local No Smoking Day Coordinating Committee - to urge smokers to quit on March 8 by seeking the help of their local stop smoking service.