Last week, Cllr Janet Burgess, Executive Member for Health and Social Care, attended Nag’s Head Shopping Centre for the launch of a new free service to help smokers in Islington kick the habit for good.

Breathe, jointly commissioned by Islington and Camden Councils, is a free and flexible stop smoking service for people who live, work and study in the two boroughs. It launched ahead of Stoptober, a UK-wide campaign that encourages smokers to give up the habit for October.

Breathe offers out-of-hours support, accessible clinics in local community settings, online support and personalised one-to-one sessions with a specialist stop smoking advisor. Smokers will be able to try different types of support until they find what works for them.

Smoking remains the biggest preventable cause of cancer and claims up to 332 lives in Islington each year per 100,000 residents. Evidence suggests that people are four times more likely to give up smoking with specialist support, which hugely improves their quality of life and eases pressure on the NHS.

Islington Labour is committed to helping local people live healthy and fulfilling lives, and helping them give up smoking is a huge part of that. The integrated Camden and Islington Stop Smoking Service is working towards the admirable goal of smoke-free boroughs by 2030.

Cllr Janet Burgess, Executive Member for Health and Social Care, said: “Islington Labour is committed to creating a fairer borough for everyone. This cannot be achieved without tackling smoking, which contributes to the significant gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest in society.

“We have been repeatedly calling on the Government to properly fund the Public Health Grant, which allows councils to provide effective smoking cessation services. The Tories have said they also want to see a smoke-free generation but we need actions, not words, for this to happen.

“We will continue to do all we can to support Islington residents to give up smoking and tackle health inequalities in the borough. Breathe will play an important role in this ambition.”

More information about the Breathe stop smoking service can be found on the service’s dedicated website. People can also call 020 3633 2609 or text QUIT to 66777.

Pictured – Cllr Janet Burgess, Executive Member for Health and Social Care, at the launch of Breathe