West Nottinghamshire College’s health and welfare team is fully-supporting the national ‘Stoptober’ campaign with health advice events this week.

The Stoptober campaign encourages smokers across the country to give up the habit for 28 days. Research claims that those who successfully give up for four weeks are five times more likely to stay smoke-free.

Supporting staff on the New Leaf information stand today at the Derby Road campus were college health champions and West Notts students Kath Dickens, Saphire-Jade Ramsden and Kaylee Hibbit.

The girls, who are studying health and social care, volunteer their time to support a range of health events throughout the academic year, while also gaining extra-curricular experience.

Today they joined seventeen-year-old music student Joshua Noseley who is looking to give up smoking. Joshua spoke to a New Leaf advisor about ways to stop his two-year habit.

He said: “I smoke between twenty and thirty cigarettes a day and a lot of my friends smoke too. I decided that now is the time to give up smoking while I’m still young.

“I’ve also been finding that I’m reacting badly to smoking with coughing and wheezing. I also spend a fair amount of money on smoking. I got some great advice today from New Leaf and have a prescription for 24-hour patches and I’ll be getting a follow up phone call from their advisor, so I’m going to give it a go.”

Team leader of the college’s health and welfare team, Andrew Wainman, said: “We hope to encourage as many student and staff smokers as possible to join in with Stoptober this year in a drive to give them a healthier future.

“With professional support from New Leaf as well as our own health champions, we want to make smoking cessation a realistic and achievable target for people who have developed a smoking habit.”