Smokers' classes stubbed out after too few take part

MORE than 20 anti-smoking classes are being closed because too few people are attending them.

The weekly meetings at 24 locations around Newcastle and the Staffordshire Moorlands are to stop after the NHS withdrew funding for the charity that runs them.

The closures come just 10 months into a three-year contract.

Smokers who dubbed the move "irresponsible" complained they had been left high and dry part way through their courses.

Some said they were so upset they lit up cigarettes.

The contract – thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds – was with Roy Castle FagEnds, which is a national charity formed in memory of the celebrity trumpeter who died of cancer.

But at one drop-in session in Clayton Library just two people were turning up when its doors closed last week.

Despite the shutdown, North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust vowed it had "no intention" of cutting its budget for anti-smoking services in the two districts where 57,000 people are regular smokers. It is understood replacement services are now being sought.

The crisis does not affect Stoke-on-Trent – highlighted last week by Government watchdogs for its high smoking rates – as the city has different services to wean people off the habit.

The classes were in Newcastle, Leek, Ashley, Biddulph, Chesterton and Waterhouses.

Retired businessman Michael Felton, aged 65, pictured, was sent home when he arrived for a meeting at Clayton Library.

He said: "I was looking forward to it because I was due to receive a certificate to mark a month without cigarettes.

"I was amazed to be told the funding had stopped.

"I have smoked 20 a day for 40 years and was making good progress at the sessions.

"It took a lot for me go for help, but I went for it because I started feeling breathless walking uphill. The lung tests I was given at the meetings showed my health was improving. Now this happens. We have been dropped like a stone."

Mr Felton, from Haslington, Crewe, had been given prescriptions for nicotine patches and lozenges at the meetings.

The retired computer company manager has now asked to join an anti-smoking session at Tesco's Kidsgrove store.

Primary Care Trust chief executive Tony Bruce said: "Smoking cessation is one of the top 10 priorities for this trust. It is the single most preventable cause of ill health and premature death.

"We have not, and have no intention of reducing available funds for this vital programme of work."

Dr Rosemary Gillespie, chief executive of Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, was unable to comment.