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Quitting smoking could save money not just on cigarettes, but also on life insurance.
March 12th marks the 25th annual No Smoking Day, which this year is calling on smokers to join the 'The Great No Smoking Day Challenge'.
Beyond the massive health benefits of giving up smoking, your finances can also be boosted.
After a year of not smoking, life insurance companies start to class you as a non-smoker, and being a non-smoker can result in premiums of life cover and critical illness cover being 50 per cent lower.
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Around a million smokers are expected to try to kick their habit on No Smoking Day, March 14. But the odds aren't in their favour, and 95% will succumb to temptation within the first year.
If you are planning to quit next month, you need to start preparing mentally right now, according to Amanda Sandford, spokeswoman for Action on Smoking and Health. Set the 14th as a firm giving-up date and ready yourself by writing a list of reasons for quitting.
Thirteen per cent of smokers in the West Country say the ban on smoking in all workplaces, including pubs and clubs, will definitely make them stop, according to a survey. The figure is part of a national survey showing that 2.8 million UK smokers say they will definitely stop. This far exceeds the Government's expectations - before the legislation was approved on February 14 it predicted that a smoking ban would lead to 600,000 people quitting.
The survey, commissioned by the charity No Smoking Day and carried out by the research organisation GfK NOP in the days after the total ban was confirmed, is the first measure of public opinion since the Commons voted on the issue.
Charlotte Church insists she is cleaning up her act, having quit smoking and cut down on booze.
The classical singer-turned-pop star gave up cigarettes in January and is encouraging others to do the same on No Smoking Day today. . . .
Her only lapse was on her birthday last month, when she smoked two cigarettes - but felt so ill she vowed not to repeat it. Church, 20, said she took up smoking at 16 'probably because I was bored'. 'I still find it hard to drink and not smoke,' she added.
'When I go out I have to hold a cigarette, I'm so used to having it in my hand. But I don't light it. I won't be drinking so much anymore, either.'
An Ulsterman who lost his dad, brother and two sisters to lung cancer has told how he had finally given up cigarettes - 54 years after he first started smoking.
Eddie Millen, from west Belfast, took up smoking at just eight years old.
At one point the 62-year- old was smoking 60 a day.
Now, on No Smoking Day he is warning young people to kick a habit which he brands "crazy".
"If my story helps even one person to give up cigarettes, then I'll feel that I have achieved something," he said.
More than 2.8 million of the UK's smokers say the ban on smoking in all workplaces, including pubs and clubs, will definitely make them stop, a new survey reveals.
The figure far exceeds the Government's expectations because last month it predicted a smoking ban would lead to 600,000 people quitting.
The survey has been commissioned by the charity No Smoking Day and carried out by the research organisation GfK NOP in the days after the total ban was confirmed.
Children in Britian are drawing anti-smoking pictures like this one to try and get their parents to quit.
The war on cigarettes is in full swing in Britain as an anti-smoking group has started a campaign that gets children to draw pictures of their parents smoking with captions like "mommy, you're killing me."
The group hopes a heart-felt message from children will get some parents to kick the habit.
Most smokers are adults, but many who suffer the side-effects are much, much younger.
So those trying to persuade us to quit smoking believe it's only children who can help us kick the habit.
The images in a book published by one cancer charity today were all drawn by youngsters desperate for their parents to give up like Lewis Michael Waite, 10, who had to live with his mom's secondhand smoke.
THE risks from second-hand smoke to children are being highlighted in a special campaign.
The initiative, by the Department of Health and Social Security's health promotion directorate, was launched on National No Smoking Day on Wednesday.
Paper masks, put together by the Manx Asthma Association, the Council of Cancer Charities and the Anti-Cancer Association, have been delivered to nurseries.
They list the risks of second-hand smoke to children in the home and in the car.
Health promotion director Lesley Dorward said: 'Parents and carers wouldn't knowingly give such harmful poisonous chemicals to their children, but some people are unaware of the risks and continue to smoke around children.'
Charlotte, 20, has revealed that she gave up the habit on New Year's Day.
The opera singer-turned-pop star urged others to do the same to mark Britain's latest No Smoking Day, saying smoking "looks disgusting". . . .
"I don't think it's fashion anymore that makes people start. It looks disgusting. It's the stupidest thing. It's so difficult to get off it."
She confessed: "I still find it hard to drink and not smoke. When I go out I have to hold a cigarette I'm so used to having it in my hand. But I don't light it."
A FIFTH of smokers in the region say they will quit thanks to the forthcoming ban on smoking at work and in pubs and clubs.
A survey, released today on No Smoking Day, reveals that nationally as many as 2.8 million smokers will give up when the ban comes into force next year.
Campaigners have hailed the figures.
Smokers in Scotland should use No Smoking Day to kick the habit, the health minister has said.
Andy Kerr said there had "never been a better time" to give up smoking, citing evidence of bans in Ireland and New York as helping people to do so.
Speaking ahead of Scotland's ban on 26 March, Mr Kerr, a former smoker, said it would improve the nation's health.
Anti-smoking campaign group Ash Scotland said 70% of smokers in the country wanted help to give up.
Today is National No Smoking Day and just 18 days before lighting up is banned in Scotland's pubs, clubs and restaurants.
Sixty one per cent of Scots support the ban and one in seven smokers believe the new law will help them quit
Scotland's health minister Andy Kerr MSP believes people are now starting to realise that smoking has a massive impact on lives in Scotland. he said: "Passive smoking is a big thing. Smoking in front of your kids is a big thing as well and people are beginning to get those messages."
TODAY is National No-Smoking day and cigarette-lovers are being urged to kick the habit for good.
By next summer smokers will not be able to light up in any enclosed public space and Oldham health bosses are hoping the new legislation will encourage more people to quit.
Alan Higgins, Oldham's director of public health, said: "The health effects of smoking are well documented yet more then three out of 10 people in Oldham continue to smoke.
Voice of an Angel Charlotte Church has quit smoking and admitted that the 25-a-day habit affected her voice.
The opera singer-turned-pop star urged others to do the same to mark No Smoking Day, saying smoking "looks disgusting".
The Welsh 'Crazy Chick' said: "I smoked about 20 or 25 a day and I'd tried to give up a couple of times before but only lasted half a day. . . .
She said she approved of a Government ban on smoking in pubs: "I think it's really good. A lot of social smokers never smoke in the week but do in the weekends, and they won't be able to now, and it's a much nicer atmosphere."
The decision to ban smoking in pubs, clubs and workplaces next year has already made more people want to quit the habit, according to a poll on Wednesday.
The House of Commons voted in February to ban smoking in all indoor public spaces and the law could come into effect by mid-2007.
A survey of British doctors, released to coincide with No Smoking Day, said the change in law was already having an impact, with one in five GPs reporting an increase in the number of patients asking about quitting.