Why stopping smoking matters now more than ever

If you’re a smoker, you should try to stop now.

There are always health and financial benefits to quitting smoking, but quitting now will help you:

1. Reduce your risk of diseases caused by smoking such as cancer, diabetes, heart attack, emphysema, bronchitis and stroke. Quitting will improve your health, and reduce pressure on the NHS.

2. Stopping smoking allows your body to repair itself – after 8 hours oxygen levels return to normal, after 2 days, your lungs start clearing out smoking debris, after 3 days breathing becomes easier and within weeks, your heart attack risk begins to drop. Watch this film which explains all the benefits of quitting.

3. Protect the health of others. Exposure to secondhand smoke also increases the risk of complications from respiratory infections, especially in children. It also increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and cancer.

If you’re trying to quit you don’t have to go it alone Help available

If you do not feel able to quit right now there are other steps you can take Protect others