Homelessness charity helps smokers quit

A charity says it has held 250 appointments with people in the homeless or migrant worker communities to help them quit smoking.

The Ferry Project in Wisbech teamed up with the local Smoking Cessation Partnership in September, using funding from Public Health Cambridgeshire.

It said eight in 10 of the people it had helped to set a date to fully quit smoking had managed to stay smoke-free after four weeks.

A spokesperson for the Ferry Project said: "Hopefully with continued positive results from Wisbech, this scheme can be implemented in other areas of the country where smoking is a particular problem."

The programme was initially due to run for a year as a pilot scheme, to see the impact it could make in the homeless and migrant worker communities.

The Ferry Project said "early success" meant it had now secured funding until the end of March next year.

The scheme is for anyone who is a migrant worker or part of the same community, homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, and wants to stop smoking.

Individuals are given a 12-week programme tailored to their needs, where they have regular face-to-face appointments and access to nicotine replacement therapies such as patches and gum.

More than six million UK adults regularly smoke, about 12% of the population, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Its data also shows that Fenland is the area with the biggest proportion of smokers in the UK, at 22%.

The Ferry Project said that its initiative was "already seeing impressive results" with helping people quit.

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