Over 850 Calderdale smokers pledged to quit the habit during this year’s Stoptober campaign to give up smoking.
They joined a quarter of a million people across the country, who took part in the mass 28-day stop smoking challenge.
Calderdale Council’s Director of Public Health, Paul Butcher said:
“New ex-smokers across Calderdale are taking their first steps towards a healthier, smoke-free life. Research has shown that they won’t just feel the benefit to their health, their bank balance should also feel much better and they’ll have more time to spend on other things.”
The average smoker has 13 cigarettes a day, which means smoking 364 every four weeks. Taking part in Stoptober will have saved them £141 each during the 28 day challenge. Which means that Christmas could be extra-special this year as our quitters will have saved £423 by mid-December. After a year they could even have saved £1696, enough to pay for a great holiday to celebrate!
And as the average cigarette takes approximately 4 minutes to smoke, Stoptober could have saved the average smoker over 24 hours by not smoking. That’s a whole extra day to spend shopping, seeing friends, having a coffee or reading a book!
Sarah Januszcyk, Public Health Secretary at Calderdale Council successfully completed the Stoptober challenge. She said:
“I’m now a non-smoker and it has been nowhere near as difficult as I thought it was going to be.
“I’ve had wonderful support from the Calderdale Stop Smoking Services – I’ve popped in to see them a lot over the past year and they always welcome me back. They always have time to talk to me, and are completely non-judgemental. If you’re thinking of quitting I’d really recommend calling them on 01422 281505 (I know the number off by heart now!)”
Calderdale Council’s Assistant Cabinet Member for Health Inequalities, Cllr Simon Young said:
“Smoking remains the greatest single cause of premature death and disease in Calderdale. Stoptober is a great way to stop smoking but if you want to give up you don’t need to wait until October. There’s plenty of support out there to help, so why not start your own 28-day challenge?”