How to quit smoking

The best way for smokers to reduce their risk of cancer is to give up smoking completely. It takes time to see the benefit but giving up smoking saves lives.

Thanks to research, new policies and improved public awareness of the benefits of quitting, the proportion of smokers in the UK has halved in the last 50 years. Because of this, the rate of people dying from lung cancer has been decreasing steadily since the 1980s.

There is still a long way to go. 1 in 5 people in the UK still smoke and smoking-related diseases kill over 100,000 people in the UK every year.

If you are a smoker, giving up smoking is the best gift you can give yourself, your friends and family. Quitting greatly reduces the risk of smoking-related cancers, as well as other diseases such as heart and lung disease, compared to continuing to smoke. The earlier you give up, the better. But equally it is never too late to gain valuable years of life by giving up smoking.

Most smokers say that they would like to give up if they could. But stopping isn't always simple. Emilie and Mark have both successfully given up after being smokers for years. They shared their stories with us, telling us how they did it, and how they feel now.

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