No Smoking Day is an annual health

awareness day Lists of holidays by various categorizations. Religious holidays Abrahamic holidays (Middle Eastern) Christian holidays *Christmas (Nativity of Jesus, Nativity of Jesus Christ, the beginning of Christmastide) *Solemnity of Mary, Mother ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

which is intended to help smokers who want to quit smoking. The first ''No Smoking Day'' was on

Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and marks the first day of Lent: the seven weeks of Christian prayer, prayer, Religious fasting#Christianity, fasting and ...

in 1984, and it now takes place on the second Wednesday in March. Each year, the campaign is promoted with a theme in the form of a short phrase. In 2010, this theme was "Break free", encouraging smokers to break free from the chains of cigarettes and quit on ''No Smoking Day''. The 2011 theme was "Time to quit?". Research conducted by GfK NOP following the 2009 campaign found that 1 in 10 smokers quit on No Smoking Day. The campaign was run by a

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

of the same name, based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

with four full-time staff, until this was merged with the British Heart Foundation in 2011. It is funded by a coalition of governmental and

voluntary sector In relation to public services, the voluntary sector is the realm of social activity undertaken by non-governmental, not for profit organizations. This sector is also called the third sector (in contrast to the public sector and the private sec ...

organizations, with an interest in health. No Smoking Day's most recent President was entrepreneur, TV personality, and anti-tobacco campaigner Duncan Bannatyne OBE. Bannatyne is an ex-smoker who publicly took on British American Tobacco at its AGM in April 2008.

References

{{reflist

External links

No Smoking Day
Health awareness days Smoking in the United Kingdom March observances Wednesday observances Observances in the United Kingdom Holidays and observances by scheduling (nth weekday of the month) Tobacco control

See also

References

External links