No Smoking Day March 9th 2005

Wednesday March 9 th was the biggest health event in the calendar, National No Smoking Day. This year approximately 4 million people up and down the country took positive steps towards stopping smoking. The theme this year was Wake up to No Smoking Day – waking up to the effects of smoking in terms of health, cost and confidence.

In light of the City Council’s decision to work towards Manchester becoming a Smoke Free city, the Manchester Stop Smoking Service in conjunction with the City Council decided to host an event that would enable them to have direct communication with their target audience and raise the profile of the service. On the morning of No Smoking Day, the Manchester Stop Smoking set up an outdoor café under a marquee in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens and invited the residents and workers of Manchester, to join them for a Smoke Free breakfast in line with the breakfast theme of No Smoking Day.

Passers-by were encouraged to visit the marquee where they were given free tea/coffee and breakfast food, namely croissants, fruit salads and fruit smoothies, all of which were branded with the service logo and contact details. Inside the marquee there were a number of Stop Smoking Specialist Advisors conducting carbon monoxide tests and offering advice and information to anyone who required help to give up smoking.

The event was a huge success, the marquee was visited by over 1600 people between the hours of 7am- 2pm, over 500 carbon monoxide tests were carried out and a phenomenal amount of service resources were disseminated. As well as the large number of people that the service came into direct contact with on the day, the event also gained a great deal of positive media coverage via a number of different local Medias and mediums i.e. Manchester Evening News, BBC GMR and the Manchester advertiser.

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