National No Smoking Day

National No Smoking Day is on the 10th March 2021. This awareness day is designed as a time to reach out to friends or family members who suffer from nicotine addiction.

According to the British Heart Foundation, a mere 20 minutes after stopping to smoke, your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal.  A couple of days after quitting smoking, the senses of smell and taste improve and weeks later exercising becomes much easier. 

A year of no smoking reduces the risk of a heart attack, to half that of that of a smoker.  The British Heart Foundation who helps with No Smoking Day has some tips to help you quit click here

Cancer Focus will soon be offering tailored, confidential one to one stop smoking support for any of our staff who want help to kick the habit. This support can be provided via Zoom/Teams, telephone, or both. Their experienced stop smoking specialists will help you to:

• Build your confidence
• Break your habits
• Manage your cravings through FREE provision of and advice surrounding Nicotine Replacement Therapy e.g. patches or other pharmacotherapy (if suitable)

Weekly support will be offered for up to 12 weeks via Zoom/Teams or telephone. First appointments usually last 30 minutes and weekly reviews are 15 minutes.

Stopping smoking is the single best thing anyone can do to improve their health. You are 4 times more likely to stop smoking for good if you get support!

To express interest, please email mindyourself@serc.ac.uk (or Suzy at Cancer Focus on suzymccotter@cancerfocusni.org). You can also sign up online via: https://cancerfocusni.org/cancer-prevention/smoking/#Stop-Smoking-Support-Form

Cancer Focus also have a private Facebook support where their specialists post helpful hints, tips and motivations every day to help you stop and help you stay stopped: www.facebook.com/groups/stopsmokingsupportNI