North East Lincolnshire’s Local Stop Smoking Service is stepping up its bid to urge people to join The Big Quit Club and stop smoking for good.

Over the next three weeks, The Big Quit teams are going to be out and about across Yorkshire and the Humber encouraging people to join the Big Quit Club and give up smoking.

It’s part of a major effort to encourage more people to quit and maximise their chances of success. 

Local commercial radio DJs has been encouraging listeners to sign up to The Big Quit Club and stop smoking with through daily competitions, features, motivational emails and podcasts.

In Yorkshire and the Humber nearly one million adults smoke, with more people smoking in the region than the national average.  Around half of those who smoke will die from a smoking-related cause.

Tobacco is the region's number one killer. Just under 10,000 people in the region die every year of smoking-related causes.  Someone in our region dies as a result of smoking every hour, every day of the year.

Recent research from the NHS Smokefree campaign revealed that around two thirds of smokers have considered quitting and are influenced by a range of different factors:

• 63 per cent said they want to save money
• 62 per cent were worried about long term health
• 38 per cent looked forward to their clothes and hair smelling less
• 31 per cent were encouraged to quit by friends or family
• 30 per cent said the new laws have made smoking less convenient.

The Big Quit Team will be in three locations within  Grimsby and Cleethorpes offering free advice and information on local stop smoking services, how to increase your odds of quitting successfully and encouraging people to set a date to quit. Specialist advisors will be on hand carrying out CO2 tests and lung life checks so that people can see for themselves the effect that smoking is having on their health.

The locations will be:

• 10 November - Freshney Place, Grimsby – 9am - 5.30pm (Outside House of Fraser)
• 12 November - Asda, Grimsby, 9am – 6pm (foyer area)
• 13 November - Grimsby Market 9am – 6pm (entrance to market from Freshney Place)

The Care Trust Plus’s Stop Smoking Service Manager David Hardy said, “Smokers will often make six or seven attempts to go smokefree particularly if they decide to quit on there own. Taking the first step is what’s important and getting the right help to do so. You are up to four times more likely to succeed in quitting with Nicotine Replacement Therapy and the support of your local NHS Stop Smoking Service than you are by willpower alone. Through The Big Quit we want to encourage people to quit smoking for good with the support of the NHS.”

The campaign follows the success of last year’s The Big Quit where half the people who heard about it agreed that it had made them more likely to quit smoking, 20% said they had set a quit date, and 12% claimed to have quit smoking completely.

Would be quitters should log onto their local radio station's website or visit The Big Quit website www.bigquit.co.uk where they will find top tips on how to quit, information on the local NHS Stop Smoking Services in their area, a downloadable smokefree wallchart, and a message wall to swap quitting tips with other Big Quitters.