Over the last 12 months we’ve joined forces with Live Life Better Derbyshire (LLBD) to help customers pack up smoking.
LLBD’s Stop Smoking team approached us last year to offer its free ‘swap to stop’ incentive to some of our customers in Ripley and Alfreton. Customers were either given a free rechargeable vape kit and liquid or signed up to a free 12-week stop smoking service. The 12-week service includes regular in person or telephone chats where they’re given tips and advice to help their individual circumstances, free nicotine replacement therapy and prescription medications.
Raymond, a Futures customer who had been smoking for over 60 years, has managed to put down the cigarettes and switch to a vape. He’s now been smoke free for over 16 weeks, which is the longest time since he was nine years old!
Raymond said: “I was smoking about 15 cigarettes a day, so I wanted to try and quit. My adviser Ellie is great, she sends me regular patches and vape liquid direct to my house which makes it even easier for me and I enjoy having a chat with her about how I’m doing. I feel better now I’m not smoking and it’s good to know the team are there to support me.
“I enjoy the phone calls and support from the advisers and I would tell anyone it’s worth doing it, for your own health and your family. I used to spend £150 a week on cigarettes, so it’s saving me a lot of money. It also adds extra years on your life, so I’d recommend LLBD to anyone and say give it a go.”
Raymond signed up for the service at one of the events the Stop Smoking team organised with our communities housing officers. Throughout the year they’ve helped run several events at some of our community centres and invited other support services along too. Including social prescribing which can help people with their health and wellbeing by getting them involved in community activities, as well as LLBD’s other services around keeping active and weight management.
Some customers also got the chance to preview and give feedback on a stop smoking social media campaign specifically aimed at social housing residents. Their comments helped shaped the campaign run by Smokefree Derby & Derbyshire, an initiative between Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council.
Claire Storer, Project Officer at LLBD said: “Working alongside Futures has helped us to understand how best to support their customers to access the LLBD stop smoking service. Helping the Futures team and residents of Derbyshire sign up to the free services offered by Live Life Better Derbyshire has been rewarding for us and them. The warm welcome we have received at the events and coffee mornings, as well as the useful insight from the fabulous customers to help shape the marketing campaign has been so rewarding and is helping us all move closer to a smoke free Derbyshire. We look forward to continuing our work with Futures and helping the team and their wonderful customers."
Carl Harper, Communities Manager at Futures said:“We’re thrilled to hear some of the success stories from our customers signing up to LLBD and it’s been a pleasure to have the stop smoking team work with us. They’re helping bring a range of free support services to our customers which is brilliant and the events have meant customers can get advice from lots of helpful organisations all in one place. We’re looking forward to carrying on working with LLBD and see how we can introduce this to more customers.”
If you live in Derbyshire and would like help to stop smoking, head to Live Life Better Derbyshire’s website by clicking here. And please keep a look out as we’ll be announcing more events in the coming months at some of our community centres!
