Pledge to stop smoking and boost quality of life
Latest figures show about 2,000 people stop smoking in Stoke-on-Trent every year.
But 54,000 adults, about one in three of over-18s in the Potteries, are still smoking.
And health services in Stoke-on-Trent were given a 'red flag' in a Government inspection last month for failing to convince enough smokers to give up.
Now The Sentinel wants to mark the start of 2010 by encouraging 2,010 extra people to pledge to give up smoking over the next 12 months.
It is estimated that 27 per cent of the city's adult population smokes, compared with the national average of 22 per cent. To reach national average levels, about 10,000 of the city's adult smokers would need to give up.
Dr Giri Rajaratnam, pictured below, who has just stood down as the area's public health director, said: "Less affluent communities, like Stoke-on-Trent, tend to have high smoking rates for two reasons.
"One is the message is not getting through. The second is that smoking is quite a difficult thing to give up, because it is an addiction.
"Often less affluent people don't have the same incentive to quit. They are not very optimistic about the future.
"Smoking does give people a release from the pressures of life.
"We know that in Stoke-on-Trent 27 per cent of the adult population smokes. Further than that, the statistics become quite inaccurate.
"But you will find that smoking rates in Trentham and Hanford would be quite a bit less than that, while in somewhere like Bentilee or Abbey Hulton, the statistics will be around 30 per cent."
Smokers can get help to quit their habit by contacting their GP or pharmacist, or speaking directly to the Stoke-on-Trent Stop Smoking Service, which runs sessions across the city.
Support is offered for free and can be on a one-to-one basis or in groups.
Sean Woodward, spokesman for North Staffordshire Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: "We are looking at stronger medication which we can now give to people to quit smoking, without the need for a prescription.
"It is widening the armoury available to people, alongside things like nicotine patches.
"Smoking is an addiction to nicotine. When you stop smoking you have withdrawal effects very similar to alcohol.
"The tar and the smoke does the damage. You need to get off nicotine the same way you would get off other drugs. It is like a drug addict taking methadone to get off heroin.
"We can give out pure nicotine without the smoke and gradually wean people off, so the body doesn't go into withdrawal."
He added: "The tax on smoking greatly outweighs the cost of smoking to the NHS. There is something like £100m paid in tax and about £30m spent by the NHS on smokers.
"As you get older you have a greater chance of having a heart attack or getting various illnesses, including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or emphysema, and if you smoke you are going to get one.
"But it doesn't matter what the cost to the NHS is. If you still want to enjoy your grandchildren when you are in your 70s, then don't smoke. If you smoke, you are going to be sitting in the kitchen, or taking oxygen, or unable to walk, while they are playing outside.
"It is about the quality of life that you want."
In Stoke-on-Trent, 500 people a year die because of smoking-related illnesses.
Dr Imran Hussain, a lung cancer specialist at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, said: "The vast majority of lung cancer patients are smokers.
"The more you smoke and the longer you smoke for, then the higher the risk.
"If you smoke for 50 years, you have a two-in-five chance of getting lung cancer. It is from everything that is in the cigarettes; there are a whole lot of carcinogens (cancer causing toxins).
"If you smoke without a filter, that makes the risk worse.
"But the lungs can recover the longer you don't smoke. If you stopped smoking at 30, the risk drops off quite significantly. Your risk of heart attack and stroke also goes down.
"But it is never going to be as low as if you have never smoked."
Emphysema suffer Barbara Beeston, pictured below, today backed The Sentinel's campaign.
The 63-year-old, of Hilton Road, Hartshill, said: "I smoked 20 cigarettes a day for 45 years and eventually developed emphysema.
"I couldn't get my breath. It was terrifying. It was hard work to give up but I did it.
"I back The Sentinel's campaign with all my heart. It is never too late to stop."
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