#Stoptober is back for a fifth year running, over 500 000 people quit smoking as a result

Stoptober is back for a fifth year, and has seen almost a million quit attempts to date. Stoptober is an annual campaign by the Public Health of England (PHE) that encourages people to give up cigarettes for the whole month of October.

Go sober for October is another campaign that ties in with Stoptober, in which people have to go sober for the entire month of October. They are also encouraged to set up a fundraising campaign and all proceeds will go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Last year, out of the 2.5 million people who took part in the Stoptober campaign, 500 000 managed to quit smoking. This set a new record for the success rate of people who kicked the habit after taking part in Stoptober.

Smoking prevalence, smoking related deaths in Medway is significantly higher than the national average from 2011-2013.

Julia Thomas, from the Medway Council, talked about how the Smoke Free Advice Centre in Chatham high street is trying to curb Medway’s smoking problem.

“Giving up smoking isn’t easy and you can’t force people to quit. Smoking comes hand in hand with deprivation and poverty.

“We do know that we are making a difference in Medway. Our prevalence rates in 2012 were much greater than the England average, but we’re already starting to see that increase in people giving up smoking in Medway.

“Recently we opened a stop smoking shop in Chatham high street. It’s easily accessible for people open 6 days a week and it’s free.

“The biggest challenge is getting people to access the service. People still don’t know we exist. We do try to use social media and marketing to promote our services as much as we can.”

The hashtag #stoptober is trending on twitter and many celebrities are jumping on the Stoptober bandwagon, such as the Ex-England cricketer and Question of Sport captain, Phil Tufnell. He said:

“Even if you have tried quitting before like me and failed, just give it another go and keep trying. The more you try to quit the more likely you are to get there. Stoptober is here to help, so let’s try and get through to 28 days without a fag by taking it one day at a time.”

Laurie Brett, Eastenders star and friend, Gary Nicholls, winner of Channel 4’s ‘Come Dine With Me’ are taking on the Go Sober challenge for Stoptober.

Gary tweeted back:

@itstifness not smoking very easy, not drinking not so but still going strong though #Stoptober #soberforoctober #sobtember

— Gary Nicholls (@garyaknichols) October 7, 2016

Laurie Brett set up a page to raise funds for Go Sober, and tweeted about her journey:

Nearly a quarter of the way,and going great.
thanks for everyone's continued support.
It'll keep me going on the days which ain't so easy😘❤️

— Laurie Brett (@LauriebrettX) October 6, 2016