![\"Mother](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_hum-070426-quit-campaign.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWendy and Amy have both successfully stubbed out the habit after life-changing experiences<\/p>\n
Mother and daughter Wendy and Amy Robinson are helping to lead the \u201cTurn the Corner\u201d quit-smoking campaign(Image: Guy Meachin)<\/p>\n
Two former smokers are the faces of a major new campaign to inspire the region\u2019s 562,000 smokers to make a quit attempt. Mother and daughter Wendy and Amy Robinson are helping to lead the \u201cTurn the Corner\u201d campaign, with the powerful message that every cigarette takes 20 minutes off your life.<\/p>\n
The campaign, which launches today (Wednesday, April 8) features Wendy, 53, of Cleethorpes, and mum-to-be Amy, of Hull, who have both successfully quit smoking<\/a> after life-changing experiences. Wendy quit after sadly losing her mum to the progressive lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease<\/a> (COPD) so that daughter Amy would never have to go through the same experience.<\/p>\n With support from her local stop-smoking service, she quit using an inhalator and patches but unfortunately, she was later diagnosed with kidney cancer caused by smoking. The cancer was removed but the following year she was told she had lung cancer<\/a>, also caused by smoking, and needed further surgery.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cI felt bad on my family and when I could see my husband crying, I\u2019d think I don\u2019t want to lose him \u2013 it\u2019s not the surgery that upset me but thinking of my husband and daughter. I\u2019m just so glad I stopped smoking when I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Wendy said she felt she was turning the negative she had experienced into the positive by helping other people, through the campaign. \u201cI am here to tell the story,\u201d she said, \u201cthank goodness I stopped smoking nine years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Wendy has lost three-and-a-half stones since her lung surgery and \u201cnever felt better\u201d. She said stopping smoking was a \u201clife-changer\u201d and urged people to \u201cget help, it\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Amy also smoked but after seeing what her mum went through, and finding out she was pregnant, she also decided to quit. Amy said: \u201cSeeing my mum go through kidney and then lung cancer was horrible.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, if she can stop smoking after 34 years, then I can quit too. And then finding out I was pregnant was a big motivator to keep going and stay quit.\u201d<\/p>\n Amy\u2019s first baby is due in just over three weeks. She said it was \u201csurreal, really\u201d to be helping to lead the quit-smoking initiative with her mum.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019d have said five years ago I\u2019d have been doing something like this, I\u2019d have said \u2018no way\u2019. I\u2019d never been a heavy smoker, maybe five or six a day, so I didn\u2019t feel I was particularly bad for doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Amy said she felt that her and her mum\u2019s \u201clived experience\u201d might resonate with people. \u201cI\u2019m not a professional, preaching,\u201d she said, \u201cI\u2019m just an ordinary person.\u201d<\/p>\n She said: \u201cI got to the age of 12 and my gran would put a rollie down to go to the bathroom and I\u2019d have a drag on it. It became so normal, but it\u2019s an addiction at the end of the day.<\/p>\n \u201cMum tried to stop smoking many times but it was always without any support. Having that support from the Stop Smoking campaign, the nicotine patches, the vapes, has made it so much easier – I quit with vapes but I think it\u2019s important to say they are not replacements for cigarettes, they are to help you stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Amy said she felt brighter and had \u201cso much more energy\u201d and enjoyed the taste of food more as a result of stopping smoking – and she has also saved money towards baby things and for herself. \u201cAlmost a year on I\u2019ve saved so much money \u2013 I\u2019m not getting to the end of the month and having to say no to things.\u201d<\/p>\n Wendy added: \u201cI\u2019m so proud of her and it\u2019s great that my grandchild will be brought up in a smoke-free environment \u2013 they won\u2019t see smoking as normal like I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Turn the Corner is a collaborative campaign being co-ordinated by the Centre for Excellence in conjunction with all 15 local authorities across Yorkshire and Humber and Yorkshire Cancer Research, who are committed to reducing smoking and protecting local communities from the harms of tobacco. Scott Crosby, associate director of Centre for Excellence, said: \u201cEveryone knows someone who has been affected by tobacco harm.<\/p>\n \u201cSmoking is the biggest cause of preventable death and ill-health in Yorkshire and Humber. It\u2019s a leading cause of health inequalities in the region and has a huge impact on people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery cigarette steals on average 20 minutes of life \u2013 that\u2019s why campaigns like \u2018Turn the Corner\u2019 are so important to raise awareness of the harm caused by tobacco. Wendy and Amy know first-hand the devastation that smoking has on your health and are a perfect example of how quitting can help you turn a corner.\u201d<\/p>\n Tony Graham, director of retail, services and operations at Yorkshire Cancer Research, said: \u201cIt\u2019s well known that smoking is strongly linked to lung cancer, but it is also a cause of at least 15 other types of cancer. As well as kidney cancer, smoking can lead to cancers of the mouth, throat, oesophagus, bladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, bowel, ovary, cervix, breast and, in some cases, even leukaemia.<\/p>\n \u201cIt remains the biggest preventable cause of cancer worldwide, and its impact can often span generations when children grow up seeing smoking as part of everyday life. Wendy and Amy\u2019s experiences show both the profound harm caused by tobacco and the powerful difference that quitting can make, not only for an individual\u2019s health, but for the health and future of their family.<\/p>\n \u201cEven after a cancer diagnosis, stopping smoking can significantly improve how well treatments work, support better recovery, increase the likelihood of survival and reduce the risk of cancer coming back. By standing alongside our partners in this campaign, we hope more people across Yorkshire and Humber will feel supported and encouraged to take a step towards a longer, healthier life.\u201d<\/p>\n Turn the corner with Yes to Quit. Visit yestoquit.co.uk for free, personalised support to stop smoking in Yorkshire and Humber. If you live in Yorkshire and Humber, you can get six months\u2019 access to all features on the Smoke Free app for free, including nicotine replacement medication as part of the campaign, worth up to \u00a3300.<\/p>\n Did you know you can make Hull Live a preferred source of Hull news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information<\/a> about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wendy and Amy have both successfully stubbed out the habit after life-changing experiences Mother and daughter Wendy and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-519586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}