Smokefree Sefton is supporting the Today is the Day campaign which aims to encourage more people to join the thousands who have already quit smoking in response to health concerns about Covid-19.

Smokers are likely to be more vulnerable to COVID 19 for multiple reasons including:

• the act of smoking means that fingers are in contact with the lips which increases the risk of transmitting the disease from hand to mouth
• Smokers lung capacity will already be reduced and therefore will be more at risk of serious illness

Most people who smoke want to quit and in Sefton there is plenty of free support from Smokefree Sefton.

Colette Kearney, Service Manager, explains: “To protect our clients we are unable to offer face-to-face support. However, all our staff are continuing to support clients weekly by telephone six days a week including evenings and at times to suit clients.”

The 12 weeks of support the service offers includes nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) which will be free to all and securely posted or directly delivered to the client. Other prescribed stop smoking medication will be sourced from the client’s GP as appropriate.

Anyone wanting specialist help to quit smoking can self refer to the Smokefree Sefton team by ringing 0300 100 1000 or freetext ABL to 62277.