No smoking campaign gets massive response

There has been an overwhelming response from readers who wish to quit smoking to Gulf News' community service campaign Stub It! The readers represent a wide spectrum of people and come from different backgrounds. However, they have one thing in common they have tried to give up smoking on their own and have failed. One reader named Fahd Saghir sent this impassioned plea for help: "There is a cardiac problem in our family, and [I] know it very well but still continue to do so [smoke]. Help me get out from this hell..." Another reader Jawad Murad said he wants to quit now that he has a one-year-old daughter with another baby on the way. He is also battling obesity and a lack of energy. "I have tried previously, especially on the persistent insistence of my wife, however, with little success," he said. Gulf News' partner in this campaign, the DM HealthCare Group, is now in the process of selecting 10 readers who will receive counselling and treatment to help them overcome their addiction to cigarettes. "We are happy the campaign is taking shape," said T.J. Wilson, group director of DM Healthcare. He said the day the campaign was announced on No Smoking Day in late May, the Group's clinics were flooded with calls from people who wanted to know how to join. He said this campaign is a noteworthy example of a community service programme to members of the public determined to lead a healthier lifestyle. The Gulf News campaign has also triggered the interest of other organisations, leading them to seek advice and help for their staff from the DM HealthCare group. The chosen participants in the anti-smoking campaign will be in the 18-50 age group. The DM HealthCare Group will also rope in witnesses who will vouch for the nominee's pledge to give up smoking. The screening panel making the selection includes top specialists in fields ranging from cardiology to psychiatry. Gulf News will be following the readers in their efforts to lead a healthier lifestyle over the next six months to a year — readers such as Patricia Formentera who writes: "I honestly think that GN [Gulf News] should select me to be in the anti-smoking campaign because for the [last] five years of smoking every day, I wake up every morning with a nasty cold that sometimes keeps me in bed when I have a million things to do. Wanting to change my lifestyle and I need help." From / Gulf News