During January, I Love Me teamed up with local radio station Key 103 to find people in Greater Manchester with the Quit Factor.
Calling upon smokers who had tried to quit smoking in the past, successfully stopped for good or making a first attempt- we heard a great number of your inspirational quit stories!
There were ten winners in total, one from each borough of Greater Manchester. As well as receiving some great prizes and receiving an invitation to our exclusive Quit Factor prize giving event, winners will front a new advertising campaign, running accross radio and bus adverts as well as local newspapers and online.
Working throught the entries, we came across moving stories from people like Barbara Champion from Wythenshawe in Manchester, whose reason for quitting was to support her husband;
“My husband had three heart attacks in 24 hours,caused by heavy smoking. I stopped smoking when I was 41 so that I could support him when he tried to quit".
Judges loved Nadira Iqbal's story. Nadira, from Deeplish in Rochdale started shisha then moved on to cigarettes due to peer pressure. Nadira told us;
"I want to give a voice to teenagers about something important. I’m really happy that something I believe like quitting smoking, could motivate someone else to stop".
I Love Me held a very special event for the winners of the Quit Factor. To see pictures from the night, visit our Facebook page. To listen to live interviews from the night, visit the Key 103 website.
And don’t forget, Quitting is a journey and help is available
If you smoke, stopping will bring enormous benefits to your health and wellbeing.
You don’t have to quit smoking by yourself; in fact, you’re up to four times morelikely to succeed if you have support from your local NHS Stop Smoking Service.
NHS Stop Smoking Services provide free and practical support to help you stub out cigarettes forever. They offer free or subsidised products with nicotine, support through Specialist Advisors, pharmacists and GP services, telephone support and group support.
To speak to a trained advisor, pick up the phone or text today.
You can contact your local service by using the information of the left hand side of this page, or,
Text: SMOKE with your name and postcode to 81066
Call: 0800 432 03 03 Visit: www.quit-it.org.uk