Former smokers get behind positive campaign to help people with long-term health conditions

A campaign has been created with health professionals and former smokers in Hull living with long term health conditions to emphasise the positives of quitting smoking and how it can help you enjoy the things that are most important to you.

Councillor Hester Bridges, Deputy Leader of Hull City Council and Chair of Hull Health and Wellbeing Board

The “Don’t Quit Quitting” campaign has been commissioned by Hull Public Health with support from NHS Hull Clinical Commissioning Group to encourage local people with conditions such as COPD, asthma, and heart disease to quit smoking.

Through a series of animations, films and print, the campaign shows Hull residents enjoying social and physical activities made easier if you are living smoke free.

Businesswoman Jan McKinley of Anlaby Road, Hull has recently stopped smoking to support her friend who was diagnosed with a long-term lung condition.

Appearing in a campaign film about her experiences, Jan advocates a positive message to help smokers: “I’ve never known anybody say that they’ve given up smoking because they’ve seen all the awful photographs on a packet of cigarettes. When I smoked, I used to put a sticker over them. Maybe that works for some people, but I think it’s more the fact that people who smoke realise that they’re not running around with the children or having the energy to go places and do things.

It’s a shame, it seems it has to impact on people’s long-term health before they do something about it.”

“Then there’s the financial benefit to stopping. It helps when people think that if they put the money away, they have saved by not smoking they could have a fantastic holiday or do something from their wish list. Turning it in all into a positive opportunity is the best way to go.”

Dr James Crick, Public Health Consultant and GP, said: “Smoking is linked with several conditions that have an impact on people’s lives; the ones that most think of are lung conditions, including cancer; people are not always aware that smoking can have an impact on other cancers, on circulation, and is strongly linked to heart disease and strokes, and in men is linked to erectile dysfunction.

Stopping now and stopping for good starts the process of reducing the risk of developing these conditions.”

Professor Mahmoud Loubani, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Hull University Teaching Hospital said: “I have seen first had the impact of smoking on the hearts and lungs of my patients which can be devastating. It leads to coronary artery disease and lung cancer as well as crippling chronic emphysema. Stopping smoking at any time will have significant health benefits for anybody and this can even be evident a few weeks after stopping. It is never too late to give up although it is hard but the immediate and long-term benefits to your health and those around you is immense.”

The campaign will be promoted through the media and through health care settings for the remainder of the year and throughout 2022 in support of Hull’s health and wellbeing strategy.

Free support with quitting smoking is available from the Smokefree Hull service on 01482 977617 or by visiting www.changegrowlive.org/smoke-free-hull