Take back your life! That’s the message for this year’s No Smoking Day.

The annual event takes place on March 12.

Media Isle of Man is encouraging islanders to get on board and use No Smoking Day as a springboard to a healthier lifestyle.

Figures provided by the NHS state that smoking claims about 80,000 lives a year in the UK. It causes one in four of all cancer deaths in England and ‘kills up to two-thirds of its long-term users’.

On average, someone who smokes loses about 20 minutes of their life for every cigarette they smoke, according to the NHS.

The latest research into smoking on the Isle of Man, carried out by a team from Liverpool John Moore’s University and published last year, showed that 10.8% of adults were current tobacco smokers, 7.4% of adults smoked tobacco daily. A slightly higher proportion of males (8.0%) than females (6.8%) reported smoking tobacco on a daily basis.

The survey also revealed that 57.4% of smokers were planning to stop smoking.

This makes the message ‘Take back your life this No Smoking Day’ especially relevant.

The good news is that, when someone gives up smoking, the health benefits begin to take effect almost immediately:

  • After just eight hours: harmful carbon monoxide levels in your blood reduced by half;
  • After 48 hours: your senses of taste and smell are improving;
  • After two to 12 weeks: your circulation will have improved;

Three to nine months: your lung function improves by up to 10 per cent;

One year later, the risk of heart attack will have halved compared with that of a smoker’s. After 10 years, the risk of dying from lung cancer will have halved compared with a smoker’s, and after 15 years the risk of heart attack is the same as someone who has never smoked. (Source: NHS/No Smoking Day.)

Further evidence suggests once people have passed the short-term withdrawal stage, they are likely to have reduced anxiety, depression and stress and increased positive mood, compared with people who continue to smoke.

Isle of Man Quit4You is a free stop smoking service, which offers expert advice from trained stop smoking specialists.

It offers appointments at a number of locations around the island. To arrange, call 642404, or emailing [email protected].

Getting help and support in your bid to stop smoking improves the odds in achieving your aim, says Quit4You, while being smoke-free will improve energy levels and help you to become fitter.

The Henry Bloom Noble Healthcare Trust is supporting Media Isle of Man’s campaign, to help spread the word to anyone who is considering giving up smoking that help is available.

Malcolm Clague, a former surgeon, and presently a trustee of the Henry Bloom Noble Healthcare Trust and its medical assessor, said: ‘Ever since Henry Bloom Noble first set up the original trust back in 1888, one of its objectives has been “the prevention and elimination of disease, including promotion of practices likely to reduce disease or ill health, or to prevent individuals succumbing thereto”.’

He added: ‘Individuals rightly have a degree of freedom around what they choose to do throughout their life and, with a recent report saying that about half of lifelong smokers will die early, some might wish to consider quitting smoking.

‘This article provides information on resources that can assist those individuals in achieving this aim.

‘We are not telling people that they must give up smoking. But if they are considering it, this article provides information on resources that can assist those individuals in achieving this aim.’

The Henry Bloom Noble Healthcare Trust has been supporting and enhancing healthcare on the Isle of Man for more than 130 years.

The Trust’s aim is to provide clinicians and healthcare professionals with new and innovative equipment and technology that can offer even greater benefits to patients.

Over the last 12 months alone the Trust has spent more than £1 million on projects, ranging from providing improved monitoring technology for the Children’s ward which has enabled the ward to add two more high dependency beds for very sick children, to providing lifelike ‘robot pets’ which are making a difference to the lives of dementia patients.

The Trust has also given grants to provide new facilities at the Community Dental Clinic which make it easier for wheelchair users to access dental treatment, and to purchase the latest equipment for a GP practice to help diagnose asthma.

The Trust has given grants to healthcare professional wishing to further their training and has provided accommodation for medical students on work placements at Noble’s Hospital. Grants from the Trust has also supported mental health charities, including Motiv8, to help them keep their vital services running.