Smokefree Wiltshire announces free stop smoking support for the New Year

Smokers across Wiltshire are being encouraged to put stopping smoking at the top of their New Year’s resolutions, to improve their health, wealth, and wellbeing.

Wiltshire Council is launching its New Year 2025 quit smoking campaign in a bid to encourage the county’s 42,000 smokers to make a quit attempt.  
 
Anyone who smokes is offered a free 12-week programme of stop smoking support, with friendly and specialist Health Coaches, along with free access to the Smoke Free app.  

Research shows that using personalised support from a dedicated stop smoking service means that people are three times more likely to quit smoking than with willpower alone. 

The 12-week programme reinforces the council’s commitment and drive to support people in their quitting journey. The programme is tailored to the individual needs of each person, with support from a Health Coach, which can be delivered in person, online or over the phone.   

Residents can also get six months’ free access to the Smoke Free app which helps people control cravings, monitor health improvements and money saved, and even chat to a stop smoking expert 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

Quitting smoking not only improves health, but it can lead to significantly more money in your pocket – since the average person who smokes spends around £2,500 every year on smoking. 
 
Hannah Gulliver, 32, from Trowbridge quit smoking in 2020 after starting smoking as a teenager. After realising her children were noticing her smoking, and the fact it was impacting her health and fitness Hannah quit with Wiltshire Council’s stop smoking service. 

She said: “The support I received from the service was so invaluable as you’ve got someone to check in with, someone who knows what it’s like to be a smoker and to stop smoking. You’ve also got the behaviour change support too, as I had to change my whole routine. I had a shower in the morning instead of nighttime and I had so much spare time by not having a cigarette in the morning, which sounds ridiculous.  

“The service opened my eyes to the fact that becoming smokefree isn’t just about quitting, it’s about changing your behaviour. You end up with a whole new lifestyle. You forget how much your life revolves around smoking until you quit.” 

Kate Blackburn, Director of Public Health for Wiltshire said, “Smoking is an addiction that is uniquely harmful in that it kills two in three long term users. In Wiltshire, nine people die every week because of smoking, and someone is admitted to hospital every minute because of smoking.  

“Not only are there serious costs to health, a tobacco addiction costs a person who smokes on average £2,480 per year. Smoking also negatively affects earnings and employment prospects. Every year in Wiltshire, smoking costs £187m in lost productivity.   

“We want to make it as easy as possible for anyone who smokes to access free stop smoking support that works for them – and to never give up on giving up. There are so many options and combinations of tools for stopping smoking. Even if a smoker has tried to stop before, they just haven’t found the tools and support that works for them yet.” 

Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling, Cabinet Member for Public Health said, “Stop Smoking Services that are available to anyone in Wiltshire that wants to be smokefree, at GP surgeries and from our Health Coaches who are based across Wiltshire. Using stop smoking services more than triples a person’s chance of successfully quitting than going cold turkey.  

“Our Stop Smoking service is tailored to the individual and non-judgemental, recognising that smoking is an addiction, not a choice. It supports people to make changes, manage cravings and have a plan in place to manage times when it might be tricky to not smoke, and staying smokefree.

“The support is free for everyone, and medications are available at only the cost of a prescription charge unless you are exempt, in which case the prescription is at no cost.” 

To contact Wiltshire Council’s stop smoking service visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk/smokefree, call 0300 003 4566 (select option 1) or email health.coaches@wiltshire.gov.uk.