Smokers are being encouraged to quit by using one of the free services available in Croydon.

Smoking kills one in five people in Croydon and causes over 400 deaths every year.

Over the past year, a dedicated team of five advisers from Solutions 4 Health working with NHS Croydon, has helped 300 people quit smoking.

The team have a mobile clinic which travels through the High Street, Surrey Street Market, Thornton Heath Leisure Centre, Handcroft Estate and in a number of workplaces including Royal Mail, Costco and the Home Office.

Out-of-hours services, including weekends and late evenings, are provided and support is available in a number of different languages including Polish, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi.

There are six confidential face to face clinics or groups sessions and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as patches, gums and lozenges, to help smokers quit.

Each individual that registers with the service will have a weekly appointment and be given friendly advice and support to quit smoking.

Leena Sankla, from Solutions 4 Health Ltd, said: "The project aims to break down barriers and to help ensure everybody has access to support to successfully quit smoking and the opportunity to adopt a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

"By taking our service into the heart of the community, we hope that we can offer clients the chance to quit smoking in a convenient and easily accessible locations.

"This service compliments the local NHS stop smoking service."

For more information go to croydon.nhs.uk