CAMBRIDGESHIRE health chiefs have joined forces to help people keep their New Year resolutions to give up smoking. The county s new primary care trust has launched CAMQUIT, free to help people in Cambridgeshire who are thinking about or have chosen to giv

CAMBRIDGESHIRE health chiefs have joined forces to help people keep their New Year resolutions to give up smoking.

The county's new primary care trust has launched CAMQUIT, free to help people in Cambridgeshire who are thinking about or have chosen to give up smoking. It has combined the four stop-smoking units of the previous PCTs, including Huntingdonshire Stop Smoking Service, into a new support unit.

Claire Mead, the PCT's healthy lifestyle co-ordinator, said: "Evidence shows that smokers are four times more likely to quit successfully by using support services and nicotine replacement. During the past three years, 7,300 people in Cambridgeshire have chosen to give up smoking with the help of local NHS stop smoking services which have now combined to form CAMQUIT."

Cigarette smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of death, locally as well as nationally. It is estimated to have killed more than 2,300 people in Cambridgeshire each year.

CONTACT: The CAMQUIT team in Huntingdonshire is on 01480 418692. Or visit www.camquit.nhs.uk