Third lost count of quit smoking attempts

More than a third of smokers have even lost count of the number of times they have tried to quit.

A new report out on Wednesday, the '30 No Smoking Days Later' highlights the plight of the many people, who have been addicted to tobacco for years.

Cancer Focus Northern Ireland, British Heart Foundation (BHF) Northern Ireland and the Public Health Agency (PHA) are part of the local No Smoking Day Coordinating Committee.

Stephanie Leckey, Area Development Manager BHF Northern Ireland, highlighted: "Around 360,000 people aged 16 and over smoke in Northern Ireland and sadly one in every two will die earlier because of their smoking habit."

Gerry Bleakney, Head of Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement, PHA, said that if quitters enrol in a specialist stop smoking service then the chances of kicking the habit for good quadruple.

"An average of 50% of those who enrolled in services last year had successfully stopped at four weeks," he explained.

"If you quit and then relapse, accept it, work out why it happened, and focus on how you can avoid it in future. It takes several efforts for many people to quit for good but if you are determined you will do it.