NCI’s website helps women to live a smoke-free life

Nov 20 2010

Are you ready to quit smoking and willing to share the good, bad, and ugly about your experience? If so, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) wants to feature you on their Smokefree Women Web site (Women.Smokefree.gov) as part of the "Women Who Quit" campaign.

The "Women Who Quit" campaign was developed by the creators of the Women.Smokefree.gov Web site, also known as Smokefree Women, to showcase the stories of real women who are challenging themselves to put down cigarettes and live a smokefree life. "Women Who Quit" will share their quitting experience by regularly posting to dedicated Facebook and Twitter accounts. The goal of the campaign is to inspire both the women who are quitting and those who follow them.

The women who are quitting may find that setting a public goal and receiving virtual support from other women provides the extra motivation they need to quit for good. At the same time, the women who follow the featured quitters can learn different ways to deal with everyday challenges and be inspired to quit too.

More than a Web site, Smokefree Women is a 24-hour interactive community of women who share one goal: the desire to become and remain smokefree. To help women achieve this goal, Smokefree Women offers many useful and unique features, including:

• Information about a wide range of topics that are important to women when they are trying to quit smoking (i.e., stress management, weight concerns, etc.)  
• Self quizzes about subjects like depression, withdrawal, and relationships
• Local and state telephone quitlines, by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW
• NCI's national telephone quitline, by calling 1-877-44U-QUIT
• NCI's LiveHelp service
• Publications that may be downloaded, printed, or ordered

In addition, a companion Facebook page and Twitter feed provide a connection with other women 24/7. There are even two Facebook apps (QuitBoost, QuitTracker) that can aid women in reaching their goals.  

If you are a woman who wants to quit smoking and would like to be considered as one of the featured "Women Who Quit," please e-mail Smokefree Women at [email protected] by November 30.