“A smoke-free life starts with a smoke-free day" - so if you're ready to try, make National No Smoking Day on Wednesday, 11 March, the day you join thousands of others around the UK giving quitting a go.
Stopping smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health.
As soon as you quit, you'll begin to see quick improvements, like breathing more easily and your sense of smell returning.
Stopping smoking also:
- reduces your risk of more than 50 serious health conditions - like lung cancer and heart disease
- increases your life expectancy - every cigarette smoked steals an average 20 minutes from your life
- improves your mental health and wellbeing - quitting smoking reduces stress, anxiety and depression and your brain can re-learn how to feel good naturally
- saves you money and protects your family and friends
It’s never too late to quit, but overcoming an addiction is hard and getting professional help trebles your chances of quitting for good.
The good news is Kent County Council (KCC) funds a range of different services to help Kent smokers kick the habit. This includes personalised care plans and free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT).
We also offer free Allen Carr's Easyway one-day seminars, online or in person, with follow up phone and email support for those who need it.
Easyway aims to change the way you feel and think about cigarettes, helping millions of people break the addiction – and feel great to be a non-smoker.
Latest figures show national and regional smoking rates continue to fall but around 1 in 10 Kent adults (just over 138,600 people) currently smoke.
As well as being slightly higher than the national average, there are also some communities in the county were smoking rates remain significantly higher.
Reducing the number of smokers in Kent is one of many reasons KCC has joined the South East Smokefree Alliance.
Folkestone Invicta Football Club recently hosted our 'Everyone Health' quit smoking stand on a matchday so anyone thinking of stopping smoking could find out more about the help available to quit. PHOTO CREDIT: Sharn Chapman
The Alliance is a partnership of councils, healthcare professionals, and sector experts and advisers committed to:
- making the South East a smokefree region by 2030 (where less than 5% of the population smokes)
- preventing the 9, 918 premature deaths caused by tobacco use across the region each year
- combining and accelerating work to reduce the harm and health inequalities caused by tobacco
“Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and premature death in the UK”
Kent County Council's Cabinet Member for Public Health, Diane Morton (RMN*) said: "Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and premature death in the UK. Working together with others gives us a bigger voice to share this message and encourage Kent residents who are thinking of quitting to give it a try."
Folkestone Invicta Football Club recently hosted our 'Everyone Health' quit smoking stand on a matchday so anyone thinking of stopping smoking could find out more about the help available to quit.
“This No Smoking Day we want to remind Kent’s smokers that there is a range of free quit support available”
KCC’s Director of Public Health, Professor Dr Anjan Ghosh, said: “The facts are clear - smoking kills. It’s also expensive and it adds to cost-of-living pressures, often for those least able to afford a tobacco addiction.
“This No Smoking Day we want to remind Kent’s smokers that there is a range of free quit support available. As KCC’s ongoing no smoking campaign says: ‘It’s well worth it!"
*Registered Mental Health Nurse
Live in Kent? Find support to stop smoking at kent.gov.uk/smokefree
