NHS Success
Stoptober boosts vaping by 29% and nurses take to Leicester’s streets.
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by Dave Cross
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Vaping was front and centre on the Stoptober website, in the related literature and in the national television advertising campaign. The effect this had on sales was phenomenal – and Vape Club was one of the beneficiaries.
The company’s director, Dan Marchant, is reported as saying: “It’s fantastic to see the NHS finally backing vaping as a pathway to quit smoking. The industry has been backing this alternative for a long time, but with the evidence provided by Public Health England, endorsements from the likes of Cancer Research UK and the figures which are produced by Action on Smoking and Health, there can be no doubt that vaping is the most effective method to give up tobacco.”
Welcoming the 29% hike in year-on-year starter kit sales, Marchant added: “The NHS advocating vaping as an alternative to tobacco is an enormous breakthrough and will do an outstanding amount of good for public health and tobacco control in the UK.”
The success isn’t going to be a one-off if a team of specialist cancer nurses from Leicester have their way. The lung cancer specialists “want to show the public what to look for, who to see and to learn to love their lungs”.
The team are going to be manning a stall in the Beaumont Leys Shopping Centre as part of a coordinated University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust plan to continue to ram the harm reduction message home.
Many vapers will already be fully aware of the ground-breaking developments that have originated in Britain’s leading city for vape-based harm reduction. Leicester was the source of the first NHS quit centre to adopt vaping, it was the first to welcome vaping into mental health units and played a leading role in the education of the wider NHS.
A Trust spokesperson said the key message they wanted to get across was that “using e-cigarettes is a great way to reduce the harm caused by smoking tobacco. Everyone is invited to take a break from their shopping to learn about the early signs and symptom recognition of lung cancer.”
Sharon Savory, one of the specialist team, added: “There are on average 500 plus patients a year diagnosed with lung cancer in Leicester and Leicestershire. The aim of lung cancer awareness month is to promote early symptom recognition and encourage the public to see their GP early. We want to show the public what to look for, who to see and to learn to love their lungs. We will be joined on the day by our smoking cessation colleagues: the Roy Castle Lung foundation, and Mesothelioma UK. The lung nurses are all Macmillan post holders.”
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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