Making Smoking History in Rochdale for Stoptober

Living Wells Andrew Forest signing a pledge with the fire services Jax Effiong and RBCs Dianne Gardner

Rochdale Borough Council and partners have pledged their commitment to making smoking history this Stoptober.

Organisations from across the borough of Rochdale came together to discuss the challenges and opportunities for eradicating smoking across the borough.

Rochdale has the third highest prevalence of smoking in Greater Manchester with 17.8% of Rochdale residents smoking, a figure that rises to 25.8% for manual workers. This compares to 17.5% of people across Greater Manchester and 14.9% of people in England.

Speakers from stop smoking services across the borough explained what help they offer to help people to quit for good. Their work is contributing to Greater Manchester’s ambition to becoming the first place in the UK to make smoking history.

The summit also heard from the midwifery team at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust who are working to help pregnant women and their partners to quit, as well as the fire service, who deal with many fatal fires caused by smoking every year.

Attendees explored the challenges of achieving Rochdale Council’s ambition to make smoking history within the next decade and made pledges for what they will do to help residents quit.

Andrea Fallon, director of public health at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “It was brilliant to bring together everyone invested in making smoking history in Rochdale to set our priorities and explore opportunities.

“Whatever motivation people have for quitting, we urge everyone to take advantage of the stop smoking services across Rochdale and quit for good this Stoptober.”

E-cigarettes are an increasingly popular way to stop smoking cigarettes and the borough’s stop smoking service has recently introduced e-cigarettes as one of many methods of quitting.

Those trying to quit can access six weeks’ worth of products, as well as the service’s usual support and advice to help people stay on track.

To make an appointment with a stop smoking advisor or to find out more about the service, call Living Well on 01706 751190 or email livingwellhmr@biglifecentres.com