Drive to kick smoking's butt

STOP-START EFFECT: Victoria Gellatly is "the face behind the posters" for Wairarapa and will attend community events with blue-T-shirted volunteers leading up to the campaign.

It will be like Dry July, but with cigarettes.

That is the premise behind Stoptober, a campaign to hold off smoking during the month of October - and hopefully beyond.

The national campaign first ran in October last year, but this year's promotion in Wairarapa will have a "community connector" - Victoria Gellatly, Masterton.

Miss Gellatly's job is to promote the 31-day quit smoking campaign, with the support of the Wairarapa Smokefree Network.

Participants sign up to a website, which will determine the level of support a person needs based on the details filled out.

Texts and emails will be sent to participants to keep them on track.

"It's quite interactive," said Miss Gellatly. "This year, you can have a support person who can join up as well to help you."

This year, Miss Gellatly is "the face behind the posters" for Wairarapa and will attend community events with blue-T-shirted volunteers leading up to the campaign.

"It was quite good last year, but with the connector role, we'll get more reach. We hope people will see the ads, hear about it. We want to excite people, really get them to take action, register."

-People can register from today at www.stoptober.co.nz