World Smokefree Day Whanau Celebration

World Smokefree Day Whanau Celebration

The CDHB’s Hauora Matauraka Aukati Kaipaipa (Smoking Cessation) team are celebrating World Smokefree Day on Thursday by holding an event to recognise the achievements of clients who have quit smoking and to encourage those who are yet to give up.

The Whanau Celebration Morning aims to bring together current and former clients of the Aukati Kaipaipa service, a free smoking cessation programme for Maori women over 18 years and their whanau. Under the programme, clients are offered free nicotine patches or gum for up to eight weeks and tailored group or individual support by trained Maori Quit Coaches for a year.

Fiona Pimm, He Oranga Pounamu Chief Executive; Maire Kipa, a former Hauora Matauraka manager; Barbara Strachan and Karen Wright will be among four Smokefree “Champions” who will speak at the Whanau Celebration Morning, to be held at the Te Rangimarie Centre on Thursday.

The “Champions” are people who are former Hauora Matauraka clients, have been smokefree for at least a year and have no desire to take up smoking again.

Mary McCulloch, Chief Executive of independent Maori health organisation Te Hotu Manawa Maori, will be another guest speaker. Shelley Norris from the Canterbury Flames will be the MC for the event.

Fiona Pimm says she smoked up to a packet of cigarettes a day until she and some work colleagues decided to give up the habit, with the help of the Hauora Matauraka Quit Coaches.

After attempting to quit four times before, she has now been smokefree for almost two years, goes to a gym regularly and competes in duathlons. “I’ve done all those things I never imagined I could do.”

Elsa Mere Tuck, who is one of the organisation’s two Quit Coaches, says she and her colleagues had decided to hold the celebration morning to recognise the huge step the clients who were now smokefree had taken to quit smoking. It was also being held to encourage clients who had not yet become totally smokefree.

“We’re trying to show clients who are still trying to maintain a smokefree life that it can be done. The support process is really important.”

Smoking Facts

- Smoking among Mäori is twice as prevalent compared with the general population.

- An estimated 31% of Maori deaths are attributed to smoking.

- Smokers die on average 14 years earlier than non-smokers.

- Tobacco is the only consumer product that kills half its users when used as the manufacturer intends.

- Second-hand smoke has been shown to cause:
* coronary heart disease
* lung cancer
* acute stroke
* eye and nasal irritation
* nasal and sinus cancer.

ENDS

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