Quit Smoking with your Manichem Pharmacy This New Year

Friday, 9 December 2011

In the New Year the Manichem Group will be working in partnership with the Department of Health to help smokers quit for good. We will be stocking NHS Quit Kits in stores across England, which smokers will be able to pick up for free. Quit Kits have already helped thousands of smokers across England quit.

The Department of Health has worked together with experts, smokers and ex-smokers to develop the Quit Kit. It includes a range of practical tools and advice to help smokers quit successfully, including helpful advice on how best to plan a quit attempt, an addiction test and tips on how to boost willpower. There are reminders of the reasons to quit to boost motivation and tips on how to beat cravings including information on stop smoking medicines and a tangle ‘toy’ to keep hands busy. It also signposts a range of additional expert support available, including local stop-smoking services.

Research conducted with those who received a Quit Kit between January and March last year showed that 87% would recommend the Quit Kit to a friend. It also showed that of those who received a kit 70% of smokers made a quit attempt, and 56% had successfully quit at the time of research. A national TV and radio advertising campaign will run from 1st Jan 2012 to the end of March encouraging smokers to pick up a Quit Kit from a local pharmacy to help them stop smoking. Smokers will be able to locate their nearest Quit Kit pharmacy stockist by text or by searching online.

The 2011 Quit Kit campaign proved to be a big success. Between January and March 2011, nearly 350,000 Quits Kits were distributed. More than 275,000 were distributed through pharmacies across England. In total, more than 3,700 pharmacies distributed Quit Kits. Positive feedback from participating pharmacy teams said that giving out the kit allowed the opportunity to open up conversations with smokers about quitting.

Smokers are able to locate their nearest Quit Kit pharmacy stockist by texting KIT and their postcode to 88088* or by searching online at www.nhs.uk/smokefree*

* Please note that this functionality will not be live until 1st Jan 2012