During this year’s ‘Stoptober’ aimed at helping people kick the smoking habit, the CURE stop smoking team based at Stepping Hill Hospital are celebrating a big milestone in saving people money as well as their health.

The CURE team have calculated they have saved smokers in Stockport over a million pounds in the cost of their smoking since they began work at the hospital two years ago.

CURE is a Greater Manchester-wide project of treatment for tobacco addiction. It ensures all active smokers admitted to hospital, in this case Stepping Hill Hospital,  are immediately offered specialist support from the team, together with nicotine replacement therapy and other medications, both during their admission, and after too.

Tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death, disability, illness and social inequality in our area and indeed in the world. The term ‘CURE’ has been specifically chosen to ‘medicalise’ tobacco addiction and move away from the stigma of a lifestyle choice towards disease treatment.

Since the team started in September 2020, they have supported 1,826 patients through their programme, and around one quarter of those have quit for good. A twenty cigarette a day habit costs £4800 a year, and so the calculation is £1,099,648 has been saved for smokers.

With the country currently focussed on the rising cost of living, the message that a smoking habit costs even more than rising energy bills is another big reason to quit, and addition to its terrible impact on health.

One smoker who the team has helped to quit is Azra Marosevic, 67, from Heaton Chapel. Azra suffered a heart attack in March this year and was in Stepping Hill Hospital a week for recovery. She had been a smoker for most of her life, and although she had tried to give up a few times, she had never succeeded. When the CURE team talked to her during her stay they gave her the confidence she needed, and she hasn’t smoked since.

Azra said; “Everyone in the CURE team was so friendly and encouraging, and gave me all the advice I needed. Together with my family, they have given me the strength I need to succeed in giving up cigarettes, which is marvellous. It’s so much better for my health and has saved me a lot of money too; my garden looks a lot nicer now I’ve got more to spend on it!”

Respiratory Nurse Practitioner and CURE team leader Pauline Holmes said “Smoking is not just immensely damaging to your health, it’s devastating for your finances too, and that’s why we’re hugely pleased to have helped so many of our patients kick the habit. Smoking is part of an addiction, not a lifestyle choice, and in the CURE team we’re able to give people the support they need to combat this addiction.  We’re looking forward to helping many more people put more money back into their family budget and live a healthier and more prosperous lifestyle.”

For more information on CURE visit https://thecureproject.co.uk/ If you’re interested in stopping smoking outside hospital and are registered with a Stockport GP, then visit https://www.healthystockport.co.uk/topic/smoking