“Quitting smoking was the beginning of a powerful and rewarding experience for me.”
LGBT Switchboard, through the LGBT health improvement project (HIP), has been working in partnership with Brighton and Hove City Council to launch a new campaign encouraging LGBTQ people to quit smoking.
It’s a concerning fact that more LGBTQ people are likely to smoke than straight people. As many as 1 in 3 LGBTQ adults compared to 1 in 5 straight adults.
The time has come for us to come together as a community to raise awareness of the benefits that stopping smoking can have.
Stopping smoking has immediate health benefits, no matter how long you’ve smoked for, it’s the best thing you can do for your health.
Switchboard has worked with local LGBTQ people in designing this campaign. Through a series of focus groups and one to one interviews LGBTQ people told them what has worked for them.
Switchboard’s Scarlett Langdon, who led the campaign, said: “It has been clear that what is important to people is that they do not feel like they are being told off. Most people know the dangers of smoking but wanted some messages that conveyed the dangers in a brighter and more positive way. Together we worked to create a campaign that aims to achieve this.”
A number of local Brighton and Hove LGBTQ residents worked with Switchboard to develop the awareness campaign and organisers say it was interesting to learn what motivated them to quit smoking,
Eric said: “I really felt like I was Bette Davis, and then I remember seeing Bette Davis after having had 4 strokes and been really ravaged by smoking, and I thought actually I am going to become that if I’m not careful.”
The aim of this campaign has been to ensure LGBTQ people know there is support available for them to stop smoking. Brighton & Hove’s ‘e-cigarette friendly’ service offers free one to one support along with licensed stop smoking medications at the cost of a prescription.
Local resident Pam, who also worked on the project, had this to say to those thinking of quitting: “don’t think you can’t do it, I won’t say it’s easy because it’s not, there’ll always be an excuse not to give up, but set a date and stick to it.”
Be inspired by other people’s stop smoking stories.
To find out what support is available to help you stop smoking view: click here:
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