Quit smoking

Stopping smoking is the best thing you can do for your health. No matter how long you’ve smoked for, quitting helps to improve your health straight away.

Watch the film below to hear some Portsmouth residents talking about their experiences of smoking and how it has affected their lives.

You are four times more likely to quit smoking if you do it with support. There are lots of free options available and you can choose the method that works best for you.

• The NHS Smokefree site offers a quit kit, app, text messages and emails.
• Your local pharmacy can provide free stop smoking advice and can assist you in choosing the best products to help you cut down and quit if you need these. Find your nearest pharmacy.
• Portsmouth’s Wellbeing Service has trained stop smokers advisors who can offer free, friendly, non-judgemental support and can help develop an individually tailored quit plan with you. They work from venues across the City and provide one-to-one appointments, group sessions and drop-in clinics.

They offer free carbon monoxide testing and can organise stop smoking medication. Specialist support is available for pregnant women and those with mental health conditions. In their first year, the Wellbeing Service helped 856 people in Portsmouth to quit smoking.

Visit the Wellbeing Service website or email wellbeing@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or call 023 9229 4001 to find out more.

You could agree to quit with a family member, friend or colleague so that you can support each other to become smokefree.

• A 20-a-day smoker can save over £3,000 a year by stopping – see how much you could save by using the cost calculator on www.nhs.uk/smokefree
• If you smoke, your children are three times more likely to smoke when they grow up
• Nearly three quarters of children worry that their mum or dad will die because they smoke
• By not smoking, you protect the health of those close to you. Children exposed to a smoky atmosphere are more likely to suffer from breathing problems, allergies and chest infections