Stoptober campaign launches in England

This year's Stoptober campaign has been launched in England, with the aim to empower people to give up smoking during October.

Smoking is currently the single biggest cause of preventable illness and death in England, with the latest statistics showing smoking costs the NHS £2.4 billion a year. Smoking is known to cause at least 15 types of cancer.

Smoking rates have declined, though there are still six million adults in England who still smoke. It is believed smoking costs society around £17 billion a year.

Stoptober provides free quitting tools, including the NHS Quit Smoking app, online communities and daily emails and texts. An online Personal Quit Plan is also available, alongside advice on stop smoking aids and vaping, and expert support from local Stop Smoking Services.

This is Stoptober's eleventh year and statistics show that people are five times more likely to quit for good if they complete 28 days smoke free.

Research shoes that most smokers want to stop and more than a third have tried to quit in the last year.

Research has shown that self-confidence is an important factor in successful attempts to quit, with the focus of this year's campaign on encouraging people to take steps to build their confidences and get support from friends and family as well as professional help.

As part of this year's campaign, a film featuring ex-Strictly Coming Dancing professional James Jordan has been released. During the film, he talks about his quitting journey, after smoking for 27 years. He also talks to NHS psychiatrist Max Pemberton, who is also a former smoker, and stop smoking professional Louise Ross about the importance of confidence and support when quitting.

Jordan said: "I consider myself a confident person in most areas of my life, but have always faltered with smoking, so thought I wouldn’t be able to quit. I smoked for 27 years. My quitting journey has shown me that I am more capable than I thought, thanks to the support of my own family and friends and the professional help I sought.

"Quitting smoking can improve your health, quality of life and save you money. I am so glad I took this step and had the chance to speak to the brilliant experts to give myself and others the confidence that quitting smoking, even if you’ve been smoking for decades, is possible.

Emeritus Professor Behaviour Scientist at UCL Prof. Robert West said: "What is really interesting is just how much of an impact self-efficacy, that sense of self-belief and confidence, has on quitting success. That confidence is something we can really help to influence. It really does show the power of the mind – self-belief when combined with other quitting aids such as vapes or NRT effectively equip people in giving up.

"What people considering quitting this Stoptober should also bear in mind is that even if you’ve tried to quit before and not managed it, that doesn’t mean it won’t work this time. You will have learnt something from your previous attempts: think of each quit attempt as a stepping stone to becoming smoke free for life.”

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