NATIONAL No Smoking Day has a new message, calling for people across the country to kick their habit their own way.

The campaign, which takes place on the second Wednesday of March each year, started on March 7 in 1984.

It is backed by the NHS and other health organisations.

This year’s slogan is “Tell Us Your Way and Quit Your Way”. It also asks smokers to go on social media, using the hashtag #TellUsYourWay, to pledge how they are going to quit smoking.

Every year health authorities and experts in Sussex have taken part in the movement to raise awareness of the devastating effects of smoking.

Posters of health warnings about lung cancer, supported by Brighton and Hove City Council, NHS Brighton and Hove Care Quality Commission, Albion In The Community and Speak Up Against Cancer have been sent around the city.

However, not everyone agrees that national campaigns would really motivate smokers to stop the habit.

Student Emma Pardoe, 19, of Stroudley Road, Brighton, said: “I’ve been smoking for three years and I do want to quit at some point.

“However, it’s not as easy as you think. If you have made plans to quit smoking, you should be able to quit any day and not wait for the national campaign to happen.

“If you decide to quit just because of a national day you’re setting up yourself for failure because you’re not doing it from your own initiative.”

Another resident, Keith Jennings, 55, of Hove, said: “I have heard of the campaign before and to be honest I don’t believe in it.

“However I think it could be effective to some people since the campaign has been running for a while.

“Everyone has a different way of quitting. If the campaign works for some people that’s great because some really need motivation.

“Sometimes campaigns get forgotten because there’s a health day every day. I’ve been smoking since I was 16, gave it up for six years and then picked it up again.

“It’s easier said than done.”