THERE is less than a month to go before Worcestershire’s three major hospitals become completely smoke-free.

From Wednesday, June 17 smoking will be banned anywhere at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital - including the car parks.

Staff at the three hospitals were banned from smoking last June, and now patients and visitors are being asked to follow suit.

Since the countdown began on No Smoking Day – Wednesday, March 11 – Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the three hospitals, has been running a special stop smoking service for patients, staff and the public.

Christina Clarke and her partner Adam Garvey are among the patients helped to give up the habit by the service.

Miss Clarke said the support of stop smoking adviser Shelley Halford had been particularly valuable in successfully giving up.

"After trying to quit before I did not believe that we could quit smoking at all,” she said.

“However, the friendly way in which the service is run makes it easy to quit.

"Shelley has been amazing from day one – the way she tells you the bad things about smoking is like no other, but you never feel pressured.

"Both my partner and I have been smokefree for over five months now.

“However tempting it is to reach for a cigarette, the advice is always in the back of my mind helping me steer clear."

Stop smoking adviser at the Royal Mary Cornford-Hill said it was never too late to kick the habit.

“Even though there is just one month left until our hospitals are completely smokefree it’s not too late for people to contact us if they want our help to quit,” she said.

“It takes most people 12 weeks to overcome dependency on nicotine, so we want to offer support to people now.

“With the help of an NHS stop smoking advisor, you are four times more likely to quit.”

Following the introduction of the rules smoking shelters will be removed from the hospitals and staff will actively ask people to put out their cigarettes.

To book an appointment with a stop smoking advisor call 0300 123 0619 or 01562 513 225. Appointments are available in Worcester, Evesham, Kidderminster, Redditch and Bromsgrove.