Cold turkey campaign for New Year quitters [video]

Anti-smoking campaign in Croydon pic: Irene Baque

A new anti-smoking campaign called “Don’t Go Cold Turkey” came to Croydon on Tuesday, to make sure New Year resolutions to quit don’t go up in smoke.

The event, held at Croydon Centrale shopping centre, aims to raise awareness of the support available to people trying to quit their habit. It is estimated that 47,000 smokers in Croydon will try and quit smoking in January, with half failing within one week.

At 23 per cent, the proportion of smokers in Croydon is higher than the national average. Almost 16 per cent will have tried to quit 5 times or more.

Dr. Sarah Jarvis, BBC medical correspondent, said: “Croydon seems like a really good place to start in London because it has a really good social spread”.

“There has been an enormous amount of interest and we are working really hard with this campaign to help people to understand that help is available, and there are up to four times more likely to quit smoking successfully if the get help from the healthcare professional”.

Free turkey sandwiches were handed out to those who took part at the event to underline the fact that stopping smoking without help (cold turkey) is the least effective way to give up the habit.

Leave a Reply