Local volunteers helped local people in Wrekenton to hold a lantern parade on No Smoking Day earlier this year. This earned the organisation sought-after recognition from the No Smoking Day campaign team, which has now joined forces with the British Heart Foundation.

Wrekenton lantern parade group was awarded the title No Smoking Day Organiser of the Year for best community or local partnership.

Duncan Bannatyne, ambassador for No Smoking Day, said: “With more than nine million UK adults hooked on smoking, the work of local organisers is crucial in helping them get the advice and support they need to kick the habit for good. Gateshead Council impressed us with its energy, creativity and ultimately its success in helping smokers quit, and I hope other organisations in the North East will follow its brilliant example next year.”

Gateshead Council cabinet member for health Cllr Mary Foy said: “The lantern parade was a great way of getting large numbers of local people together and it was a really fun evening for everyone. But there’s also an important message behind the parade too, about the health risks of smoking and the help available for residents who want to quit.
“Winning the award is a really important achievement for the people of Wrekenton who have been so passionate about giving up smoking throughout this project.”
The streets of Wrekenton were lit up by a parade of over 200 hand crafted lanterns as part of Gateshead‘s efforts to mark National Stop Smoking Day. All of the lanterns were created by volunteers from Wrekenton.
Amongst the most eye catching lanterns were paper replicas of Big Ben, a Crocodile with a clock in its mouth and many other larger than life creations. Four local primary schools, local Brownies, Cardinal Hume Catholic School, Springwell Community Centre and a host of other local groups were involved in three weeks of workshops to create the lanterns.
The competition was particularly tough this year with more than 160 entries for the awards.

No Smoking Day 2011 took place on March 9 with hundreds of events arranged by organisations such as Gateshead Council across the UK. Activities ranged from appearances of the costume character ‘Big Cig’ and breath tests revealing smokers’ lung ages through to LED screens emblazoned with quit smoking messages at an army barracks, quizzes, competitions, and lots of on-hand support from smoking cessation advisers.

No Smoking Day is responsible for helping more than 750,000 people across the UK attempt to quit smoking on the day, and for inspiring another 2 million to seek out information to help them quit.

Plans for the next No Smoking Day are already well underway. The event will take place on March 14, 2012.