Make March Your Month to Quit says Lee

Lee Foster receives his stop smoking certificate from Trudy Barnes, Cancer Focus NI

A total of 1,430 people across Northern Ireland decided to quit using stop smoking services during last year’s No Smoking Month. Statistics show that smokers are four times more likely to quit if they get help.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) and Cancer Focus NI are now encouraging thousands more to stub out their cigarettes and ‘Make March Your Month to Quit’.

Ballymena man Lee Foster (43), an engineer, smoking as a teenager and continued on and off for 20 years. He said: “I’ve tried many times to stop this horrible habit over the years and maybe got three or four days in before giving up. I just couldn’t get past those few days. Maybe it was because I always tried to go cold turkey with no assistance or nicotine replacements.”

Then, Cancer Focus NI introduced a 12 week stop smoking programme in Lee’s workplace.

“A few of us at Veolia signed up to give it a go and see if they could really help us ... at the end of the day there was really nothing to lose.

“Within two to three weeks the two old timers of the group, the two who had smoked the longest and most frequent, had astonishingly stopped, putting us (slightly) younger lads to shame. They set the benchmark. “It took me three to four weeks before I stopped and the cool thing was there was absolute no pressure from anyone.

“I’ m so proud of all the lads that took part and I’m especially proud of myself.

Colette Rogers, Strategic Lead for Tobacco Control with PHA, said: “We are calling on people to use March as the perfect opportunity quit the habit. While we know that stopping smoking can be a challenge, help is at hand. There is a range of services across Northern Ireland that have an excellent track record in helping people to quit.”

For more info. visit www.cancerfocusni.org/stopsmoking or www.stopsmokingni