Pauline hails city Live Well team for help to kick habit
FORMER SMOKER
A LEICESTER woman who smoked for nearly 60 years and was diagnosed with cancer has kicked the habit using the council’s stop smoking service.
Pauline Smith started smoking when she was 11 and had smoked for 57 years before a health scare gave her the incentive to quit.
The support she needed to stop – and stay stopped – was provided by the city council’s free Live Well service, and Pauline says it’s been invaluable to her.
Leicester City Council’s Live Well service has a team of stop-smoking advisers available to provide telephone support and treatment to help people quit. Pauline is telling her story to encourage others to quit.
“I found a lump on my breast. My mother went through breast cancer, so I’d always told myself that if I ever found a lump, I would quit,” Pauline said.
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer and told I had to stop smoking before my operation. I went to see my GP and they gave me the number of the stop smoking service – 0116 454 4000.
“I quit immediately, using patches and a vape. That was seven months ago, and I haven’t smoked a single cigarette since.”
Pauline says she has found much easier to quit than she expected, with the vape being a particular help. She has since gone on to refer lots of her friends to the Live Well service, who have also successfully quit.
“I can’t stress enough how valuable to me it’s been to get phone calls from Live Well,” she said. “Without that element of the support it would have been much harder, but being accountable to someone other than myself - and being reminded how well I was doing – was a real gamechanger.
“You’re not told off or told how to quit – instead the team listen to you and encourage you and are friendly and supportive.”
Yesterday was national No Smoking Day, which the council marked by publishing its tobacco control strategy, which sets out how it will work towards achieving an ambitious government target to reach a smoke-free generation by 2030, which means less than 5 per cent of the population smoking.
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SAYS SERVICE ‘INVALUABLE’ TO HER HEALTH
Other key aims include making sure every smoker has easy access to the support available from Live Well. More than 15 per cent of city residents are smokers, but this rate is much higher among some groups. As local survey data suggests 59 per cent of Leicester’s smokers would like to quit for good, it’s important everyone who wants to quit can get the support they may need – including, for example, people with mental health conditions, who might find it even harder to quit. The strategy wants to see smokefree pregnancy for all pregnant women, and sets out its aim to continue working with maternity services to achieve this. And it highlights the importance of backing evidencebased innovations to support quitting – such as vapes – so quitters can make an informed choice about how they want to quit.
Leicester assistant city mayor for public health, Councillor Vi Dempster, said: “Giving up smoking isn’t easy, but it’s a decision you’ll never regret. We know quitting with specialist support significantly increases your chances of quitting for good. Within just eight hours of quitting your body’s oxygen level will return to normal and after a few days you will start to find your breathing feels easier.”
Being accountable to someone - and being reminded how well I was doing – was a real game-changer Pauline, above
CONCERNS have been raised over plans to create a 150-acre industrial hub which will be regularly visited by lorries near the “most-bashed bridge in Britain”.
Logistics developer Mountpark is proposing to build on a wedge of land at Padge Hall Farm, with the site to have an entrance on the A5 near the infamous low railway bridge, which was hit on average once a fortnight last year by lorries.
When initial proposals for the large scheme emerged in 2019, they prompted concerns from Hinckley councillors about how the site would affect long-standing plans to build a new road around the bridge to stop the constant scrapes with tall vehicles.
There were also worries about how the route would cope with the extra traffic, in particular at the Dodwells island junction.
A meeting was held on Tuesday, between Mountpark and members of Leicestershire County Council, Warwickshire County Council, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and Highways England, for representatives to air residents’ concerns about the project.
Among those who went along was Hinckley county and borough councillor, David Bill.
He said: “It was a useful meeting. It is obviously very early days and the key decisions will be taken by Rugby Borough Council, Warwickshire County Council and Highways England but we established two key principles – the need to improve the [height] capacity of the railway bridge and the need to reserve sufficient room for an alternative route for the A5.”
He also said: “There is obviously the wider question over the balance to be struck between the provision of work to replace all the jobs now being lost and the need to protect farmland and the open countryside which is fast disappearing.
“As we keep pointing out, the drive on the part of the government to encourage housing and industrial development comes with a cost.
“Unless there is a change of direction from government, we could be faced with all our towns and villages joining up from Nuneaton to Stoney Stanton.”
Mountpark previously said its plans included lowering the carriageway along a 200-metre stretch of the A5, beneath the railway bridge, and to undertake works to address problems with flooding in the area.
A spokesman for the developer said: “The design principles for these improvement works have been agreed with and supported by Highways England and Network Rail, and do not prejudice long-term aspirations to widen the existing A5.”
The business hub would comprise distribution and industrial buildings, along with up to 136,350 sq m of office space. Vehicles would access the site via a new traffic signal-controlled T-junction on the A5, near the bridge.
A NEW chief executive will take over at construction materials giant Breedon Group next month.
Rob Wood, pictured, who is the listed company’s finance director, will replace outgoing CEO Pat Ward on April 1.
Mr Ward announced his plan to step down last October but continue to help the board until the end of the year.
Based at Breedon-on-the-Hill, near East Midlands Airport, the business employs around 3,500 people and has almost a billion tonnes of mineral reserves and resources.
It owns more than 100 quarries, asphalt plants and cement and concrete operations and operates in sectors ranging from slate production to clay product manufacturing, contract surfacing and highway maintenance.
Since it was launched in 2010, it has grown organically and through the acquisition of businesses in the heavy construction materials market.
Financial results just released show pre-tax profits halved last year to £48 million on a turnover on a par with the previous year, at £929 million.
The business said it was a “robust performance against a backdrop of considerable disruption caused by Covid-19”.
The results show
Breedon reported a strong balance sheet and liquidity, and experienced a strong recovery in the second half of last year as the economy and construction sector started to reopen, with like-for-like revenues and profits ahead of the previous year.
Mr Ward said: “The pandemic brought unprecedented pressures to bear on the group in 2020, which demanded an exceptional response from everyone in our business.
“Although we remain mindful of the ongoing impact of Covid-19, with the worst of the pandemic now hopefully behind us and some welcome clarity on Brexit, I believe the prospects for Breedon and for our industry are increasingly positive.
“With robust commitments from the UK and Irish governments to infrastructure investment and continuing long-term demand for housing, forecasters are expecting this year and next to see steady growth in demand for our products in both countries.”
When Mr Wood becomes CEO, he will be succeeded by James Brotherton, who joined as chief financial officer designate on January 1.
Helen Miles is also joining the board as a non-executive director on April 1.
She is currently a director and a member of the executive committee at water company Severn Trent, and before that held senior positions with Homeserve and BT Group.
She is also a non-executive director of the Royal Navy.