Smokers in the East Midlands are being encouraged this No Smoking Day to log on to a new online resource to quit the killer habit.
Tobacco smoke is one of two leading causes of preventable deaths in the East Midlands with more than 7,200 people dying from smoking-related diseases each year.
That is why NHS organisations in the region are pulling out all the stops this No Smoking day and supplying a whole host of services to help reduce this shocking statistic – including the Smokefree East Midlands web page.
The webpage provides information about where you can find your nearest stop smoking service, numbers if you want to chat to someone about quitting and general information on breaking the habit. It can be found at http://smokefree.nhs.uk/eastmidlands/ .
Stop smoking facilities in the East Midlands are provided free of charge by local NHS organisations and offer ongoing face-to-face support and advice. They provide a range of services including support sessions with trained stop smoking advisors and medical guidance to help manage your cravings - making it up to four times more likely that you will go smoke-free.
Stop smoking services in the region are also encouraging smokers to quit by holding stop smoking events and providing specialist services. NHS Leicester City’s STOP! smoking service is teaming up with Leicester libraries to offer the public free lung age tests, Fresh Start, NHS Derby City’s stop smoking service, is providing advice for pregnant mums who want to quit and NHS Nottingham City New Leaf programme is holding a week-long drop in service in the centre of Nottingham.
Services like these help one in two people quit smoking after four weeks.
David Walker, Director of Public Health for NHS East Midlands, said: “We recognise quitting smoking is not easy, but as latest figures show, the support of stop smoking services, such as Smokefree East Midlands, can make a real difference to help people avoid serious health problems.”
For further information contact the Communications Team on 0115 9684468.
