East Sussex’s 57,000 smokers urged to sign up for free specialist help to quit with 28-day Stoptober challenge

Throughout the month, One You East Sussex will be hosting drop-in events in Hailsham, Peacehaven, Uckfield, Rye, Eastbourne, Hastings, Heathfield, Seaford, Newhaven, Lewes and Bexhill. Full details of dates and precise locations will be on their Facebook and Instagram pages.

62-year-old Linda Fleet from Hailsham started smoking when she was 19 years old and, at its peak, was smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes a day. An asthmatic since childhood, the stress of moving back to the UK from overseas and moving into a house that required significant renovation, she found that not only had her smoking picked up again after a while on e-cigarettes, but her asthma was getting worse as a consequence. Her GP referred her to One You East Sussex’s Stop Smoking service, where she immediately began to benefit from the specialist advice of Quit Coach Julie Hipperson.

“I first saw Julie on May 2nd this year and I look back on it now as a blessing really,” says Linda. “She explained the simple changes I could make, including paying for my shopping at the till rather than the cigarette counter, so I wasn’t tempted to buy any on impulse.

“One morning, when using the CO machine, I saw the improvements in my readings and immediately just broke all the cigarettes, put them in the rubbish, and that was that.

Now, my hair doesn’t smell any more of smoke, my breathing has improved, I've wiped down all the cabinets in the kitchen with bleach, so the house just smells fresh, and I feel so much better in myself. The worst problem with my asthma was being unable to sleep. But now I hardly use my Ventolin inhaler, and I only use the preventative one once a day instead of twice, and now I can sleep.

And I’ve worked out that in the 136 days since I first started with Julie, I have saved £2,800. That’s a holiday!”