As part of this year’s No Smoking Day, the ‘Quit Your Way Hebrides’ team (formerly known as Smokefree Hebrides) asked islanders to #TellUsYourWay of how they stopped smoking! No Smoking Day is the national day celebrating the success of people who have stopped smoking, and encourages those still smoking to try and try again, and give up for good.

As well as a series of displays and activities promoting No Smoking Day, the ‘Quit Your Way Hebrides’ team’s main focus was to highlight the success of some of their local clients who had successfully quit smoking and wanted to share their stories with other smokers, in the hope of encouraging them to try quitting too.

To highlight their success, a number of posters were developed featuring personal straplines from each successful quitter as featured below.

Joanne O’Donnell, NHSWI Smoking Cessation Coordinator, said “How you quit smoking is your choice, and different ways work for different people. It’s all about finding what works best for you to help you quit for good. After a few days you’ll start to notice the changes, and there is a lot of help and support around for you from our specialist team across the Western Isles.”

“We signed up to support No Smoking Day because we wanted to hear from people living and working in the Outer Hebrides, about how they stopped smoking, and to use those examples to encourage others who want to quit or who have tried before to give it up on No Smoking Day. The photographs alongside are some of our successful quitters from across the Islands. Each of our quitters has a different but very motivating story to tell.”

Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland, supports No Smoking Day and said “Some people just decide to quit and manage it straight off – and can be surprised to find it was easier than they thought. For others it can take a number of attempts to succeed, but each time they learn something about themselves and what helps or gets in the way. There’s free, expert advice from your pharmacy or Quit Your Way Scotland and you can get prescriptions for help if you need them. Just have a think, and talk to people, and pick your way to quit.”

NHS stop-smoking services in the Outer Hebrides don’t just support No Smoking Day, they work all year round and if you want to quit, would be delighted to offer you their support.

For expert advice and help on how to quit smoking, however you want it, please contact ‘Quit Your Way Hebrides’ by telephoning (01851) 701623 or emailing hebrides.quityourway@nhs.net