Stoptober – October 1 to 28, 2013
Artistic pupils in west Norfolk have been finding creative new ways to highlight the dangers of smoking this Stoptober as part of an innovative competition designed to prevent young people from taking up the habit.
More than 100 year seven and eight pupils at King Edward VII School in King’s Lynn put together imaginative posters as part of the contest arranged by Smokefree Norfolk, the stop smoking service provided by Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.
The winning entries were designed by Brianna Burge (year 7), Megan Eke (year 9), Eilis McGovern (year 9) and Zara Koenigsberger (year 9), and were picked by local GPs and West Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group members Dr Ian Mack (Chair) and Dr Pallavi Devulapalli (GP Member of the Governing Body). They will be displayed in a variety of locations across Norfolk, including 25 of the county’s Green Buses.
The contest was arranged to coincide with the national Stoptober campaign, which starts on October 1 and encourages smokers to go smokefree for 28 days, in turn making them five times more likely to stay quit for good. Its goal was to prevent young people from taking up smoking while encouraging those who have already developed a habit to get help to stop.
Competition organiser Moira Welham, Lead Advisor (West) with Smokefree Norfolk, also hopes the project will encourage the pupils, who are aged between 11 and 13 years-old, to spread the stop smoking message at home and persuade their parents or other family members to get help to quit.
“I have really enjoyed working with the staff and pupils at King Edward VII on this exciting project,” said Moira. “The posters which the students put together were fantastic and really caught the imagination.
“The project was launched after I visited the school to talk to pupils about the dangers of smoking and passive smoking, and to explain that they shouldn’t feel pressured into smoking by their friends. We really hope it has showed the group the damage which cigarettes can do to your health and just how much money they would spend if they did take up the habit.
“Some of the pupils who took part also told us they wanted to their parents to stop, so we’ve given them information about the help and support we provide which they can take home, hopefully persuading their parents to use this Stoptober as their springboard to go smokefree for good.”
Sally Parkinson, a teacher at King Edward VII School who helped organise the competition, said: “We were really pleased that we were able to work with Smokefree Norfolk on this important project, which has helped discourage our pupils from taking up smoking while spreading the message that there is help available for anyone who does smoke and wants to stop.
“We were incredibly impressed with the quality and creativity of the entries as the pupils had a really imaginative response to what was quite a difficult brief. We are looking forward to seeing the winning posters on display around the county.”
Smokefree Norfolk offers a range of free, confidential help to people who want to stop smoking. This includes one-to-one support and group sessions, as well as medication such as patches, mini lozenges or mouth spray.
For advice about giving up smoking, contact the Smokefree Norfolk team on: freephone 0800 0854 113, text bfree and your name to65000, or log on to www.smokefreenorfolk.nhs.uk.
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