Women in Blanchardstown complete ‘We Can Quit’ programme

Two groups of women in Blanchardstown have successfully completed a programme called We Can Quit which aims to help women to quit smoking together. We Can Quit is an initiative of the Irish Cancer Society in partnership with the Blanchardstown Area Partnership, the Blanchardstown Primary Care Team, Health Promotion and Improvement HSE and Touchstone Pharmacy. In total, 19 women from the area attended and successfully completed the course in Blanchardstown Primary Care Centre and Blakestown Resource Centre.

The women began attending the free 12-week programme at the start of February and since then have joined forces on a quitting journey together. They attended weekly group sessions and one to one support meetings as well as receiving 12 weeks of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) to the value of €450 free of charge. The programme was open to all female smokers living in the Blanchardstown Area, Dublin 15 who were over the age of 18.

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Joanne Vance, Senior Health Promotion Officer at the Irish Cancer Society said: “We were delighted to see so many women attend We Can Quit in Blanchardstown. We understand that women have so many challenges and commitments in their lives already and that they can see quitting smoking as an uphill struggle that is difficult to take on. We Can Quit offers women a friendly and supportive network of like-minded women who know what they are going through. Together, they can support each other on their quitting journey.

We know that We Can Quit works, as this is our second year running the programme here in Blanchardstown. We already have several local women who have managed to successfully quit smoking as a result of the initiative. I would like to congratulate all of the women who have completed the programme – it is a fantastic achievement which will have a positive impact on their family’s lives.”

Terry McCabe, Deputy CEO of Blanchardstown Area Partnership said: “We are happy to have the opportunity to work on this project and to collaborate with our partners to give women in the area the opportunity to improve their health and lives by giving up smoking.”

Anyone who is interested in finding out more about We Can Quit can visit our website www.cancer.ie/we-can-quit or you can email Rachel Burke at rburke@irishcancer.ie or call 01 2316669.