So here in Lambeth we do have a great NHS stop smoking service, so when you contact us you'll be put in contact with your own specialist advisor who will be with you along the journey. As you're thinking of stopping smoking, it's important to have a think about what your reasons are for wanting to stop smoking, because some people find it helpful to write them down so that at least they can refer back to it later on, particularly when things do become difficult, you can sort of just revisit it and just remind yourself why it is that you want to stop smoking and why it's important for you. You'll have access to either one-to-one support, group support or we also do home visits.
We'll measure your carbon monoxide, so that's also another thing that people find quite encouraging. When you first come to us you'll probably find that you have quite a high reading and then as you go along in your quit attempt your reading will come down really low, and your specialist advisor will be able to explain what carbon monoxide is and what it means and what it's doing.
When you're stopping smoking it's common to have a lapse particularly at the beginning. What I would say is just keep going and again with your specialists and while you're stopping smoking you can talk about the lapses and look at well actually what have you learnt, what did you learn, what can you take away from that. And also as you get further along in your quit attempt you'll find that your willpower does strengthen and also you then become more confident that you can continue.
You'll have your own specialist who provides that support for you so you'll have that personal relationship, someone to be accountable to each week and someone to report back to and just boost you along the way and see how you're getting on.
You're four times more likely to successfully stop smoking than just doing it on your own. We at the Lambeth stop smoking service have a good success rate, we're a friendly bunch and, you know, you're at the heart of what we do.