Stoptober 2025

What is Stoptober?

Every October, the Department for Health and Social Care runs ‘Stoptober’, an annual mass participation stop smoking campaign.

The goal is simple: to encourage the remaining 5.3 million smokers in England to quit for good, by showing that they don’t need to quit on their own.

Why it matters

Smoking is still a significant issue:

Smoking remains the single biggest cause of preventable ill health and death.
Smoking is estimated to cost society £21.3 billion per year in England. This includes an annual £18 billion loss to productivity through smoking-related lost earnings, unemployment, and early death.
230,000 households live in smoking-induced poverty.
Smoking is estimated to cost the NHS and social care £3 billion per year, resources that could be freed up to deliver millions more appointments, scans, and operations.
Using willpower alone remains the most common approach to quitting smoking. This is in spite of the fact it’s been proven to be the least effective.

Join thousands of other smokers committing to quit this October!

Quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health. When you stop you’ll experience health benefits almost immediately.
Stop smoking for the 28 days of Stoptober and you’re five times more likely to quit for good.
It’s never too late to quit smoking. Even if you’ve tried quitting before, give it another go this Stoptober.
NHS Better Health offers a range of free quitting support. This includes the NHS Quit Smoking app, a personal quit plan tool, help to find a local stop smoking service and advice on quitting techniques such as switching to vapes.

Want to know more? Click here to visit the NHS website for more guidance.