SalfordOnline
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   Campaign launched to help smokers quit this New Year
As millions of New Year’s resolutions are made this month, new NHS Smokefree research1 reveals that many smokers in Salford are largely underestimating how damaging smoking is to their personal health and finances. Research in the North West shows: Almost two thirds (65%) of smokers in the region underestimate how many long term smokers die early from smoking related disease (the actual figure is that 1 in 2 of all long term smokers will die early from smoking related disease). 31% of smokers in the region underestimate the number of cancer deaths caused by smoking (the actual figure is that smoking is estimated to be responsible for over a quarter of cancer deaths in the UK). And amazingly, 9% of smokers in the region still do not believe that smoking can seriously damage their health and lead to premature death. Smokers in the North West region also underestimate the financial costs of smoking2 - on average smokers estimate that smoking 20-a-day is costing £1745 per year. With a packet of 20 cigarettes now costing on average £6.59 smokers are underestimating this by over £650. In reality, a 20-a-day smoker could save £2,405 a year. Although many smokers plan to quit in 2012, the research found that various myths around stopping smoking are preventing people making quits: Over a third (35%) are not quitting because they feel that they are too stressed to try and quit 35% are not quitting because they tried before and failed 43% also feel they don’t have the willpower required In reality, research shows that smoking causes more stress and anxiety than not smoking and that quitting can help to reduce stress4. Evidence also shows that you can increase your chances of quitting successfully by using NHS support and that your willpower can be boosted with simple exercises available in the new and improved Quit Kit. 526 people in Salford died from smoking related illnesses in 2009. Research has shown that smokers who quit with NHS support are up to four times more likely to succeed. Help is at hand for the thousands of smokers who want to quit in the New Year. The Department of Health is launching an advertising campaign aimed at giving you the right tools to quit smoking by offering a new and improved NHS Quit Kit from a participating pharmacy in England from 1 January. To find your nearest stockist text SEARCH and your postcode to 88088 or search online at www.nhs.uk/smokefree. The NHS Quit Kit has been developed by experts together with smokers and ex-smokers and contains practical tools and advice to help smokers quit smoking for good. Items include a health/wealth wheel which helps quitters calculate savings and improvements to health; MP3 downloads which are scientifically proven to reduce cravings and a ‘tangle’ toy to help keep hands busy. The Quit Kit also contains information on other free quitting help such as local Stop Smoking Services, plus smokers can sign up to get new motivational text messages straight to their mobile phone. Dr Brian Hope, Medical Director at NHS Salford said: “Quitting is not easy, but it can be made less difficult with the right support and tools. We want to help as many people break the cycle of addiction and quit for good.” If you are thinking about stopping smoking in 2012 and would like to talk to someone please contact the stop smoking service on 0161 212 4050 Source: Salford NHS. Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
