With October rapidly approaching it is that time of year again where smokers all around country make a valiant attempt to kick the cigarettes into touch for 28 days. Yes, it is the return of the Stoptober Challenge! By successfully stopping smoking for this 28 day period, it is believed that smokers are then five times more likely to actually remain smoke free for good. There is no better time to kick-start your effort to ditch cigarettes, after all they are causing huge damage to you and those around you. Smoking damages the body in numerous ways, such as the day-to-day effects on your heart and breathing, to longer-term smoking-related diseases such as heart disease, cancer and stroke. Your smoking can be a detrimental impact on your family's health as well. More than 80% of cigarette smoke is neither visible nor causes an odour. Therefore, you may think you are being careful, but loved ones around you are still ingesting harmful chemicals. This means you, your children, and anyone else around you are at risk of the same serious illnesses, such as meningitis, cancer, bronchitis and pneumonia. The only way to fully protect your friends and family from second-hand smoke is to maintain a smoke-free environment, which means stopping smoking completely! However, if you don’t make it through the 28 days of Stoptober, try and keep your smoking away from other people. Not smoking indoors or in the car is a start, as well as requesting any visitors to smoke outside. In addition, quitting smoking is clearly a huge benefit for the health of you and others around you, but it will also leave you with plenty of pocket money at the end of the month when everyone else is skint! With what seems yearly taxes on tobacco and price increases, simply put smoking is an expensive habit to have and the cost quickly spirals. On average, people save around £250 each month when they quit smoking. That is a shocking amount of money being wasted on a habit that is slowly killing you, and could be put to better uses. There are plenty of ways to refrain from smoking through October and support available during Stoptober. Some people find nicotine replacement therapies – like patches, gum and inhalers, helpful, whilst there are proven smoking cessation prescription tablets such as Champix, all of which can help to keep cravings at bay. Anyone looking to participate in the Stoptober challenge can benefit from a range of free support, including an app that tracks your progress and money saved, daily emails, Facebook Messenger and plenty of positive encouragement from the Stoptober community on Facebook. There is also face-to-face advice, support and encouragement at hand from experts based at local stop smoking services. It is estimated those who use stop smoking aids and who receive face-to-face support from their local stop smoking service are up to four times more likely to successfully stop smoking. Click here to visit the Stoptober website.