Help to stop smoking with a free vape

The Swap to Stop programme

If you are looking for help to stop smoking, the Swap to Stop project can help you. Using a vape along with other support is one of the most successful ways to stop smoking.

When you sign up, you can swap your regular cigarettes for a free vape and a slow-release nicotine-replacement therapy patch. You also get help, advice and one-to-one support for 12 weeks from the Sunderland Stop Smoking Service.

How stopping smoking for good helps you

Health

If you smoke, stopping is the single greatest thing you can do to improve your health. Within a month, you will:

• boost your immune system
• have lower blood pressure
• find it easier to breathe
• be able to be more active
• improve your sense of taste and smell

Within a year, the risk of heart disease will have halved. Within 5 years, the risk of stroke can be the same as a non-smoker.

Money

If you smoke 20 cigarettes a day (and a pack costs £15) you could save more than £400 a month by switching to vapes with support from the Sunderland Stop Smoking Service.

Why swapping helps you stop

Getting specialist help, advice and support while vaping increases your chances of stopping for good.

Vaping also provides similar taste and throat sensations to smoking.

If you have tried to stop smoking before, you can try again. Every time you try to stop smoking takes you closer to being smoke free.

Facts about vaping

Vaping is much less harmful than smoking tobacco.

Vapes have far fewer chemicals than cigarettes.

If you smoke, vaping increases your chances of stopping for good.

Vaping is not risk-free and is not recommended for people who do not smoke or people under 18 years old.

When you feel ready (e.g. after a couple of months) and you want to quit vaping, Sunderland Stop Smoking Service can support you to do this.

Who can get help

If you are a Gentoo customer living in Sunderland and aged 18 years or older you can receive help through a Swap to Stop scheme. To find out more, please call the Sunderland Stop Smoking Service for free on 0800 169 9913 or email sunderland.stopsmokingservice@nhs.net so you can refer yourself to the service. You can also call 0191 525 5000 and select option 4.

If you are not eligible or need more support once the 12-week programme ends, you can still get in touch with the service and get help to stop smoking.

You can sign up for the programme on the Sunderland Stop Smoking Service website. 

How the project works

Once you have been referred, at your first appointment the Sunderland Specialist Stop Smoking Service will give you a vape, starter kit and a voucher for a nicotine replacement patch. The vape is a closed pod DOT PRO which comes with replaceable pods.

You will have further appointments with a stop smoking advisor who will give you one-to-one support and more supplies of the pods for the vape and patches.

You can choose different flavoured pods depending on what is available. The smoking advisor will give you advice about nicotine strength and how often to use the vape.

You can return any old vapes and pods at your appointments and the service will get rid of them or they can be taken to the Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) at Pallion or dropped off at any large supermarket to be recycled.