Win RM10,000 for quitting

NST: Quit smoking for a month in May and win RM10,000.
The winner will then compete with 100 other national champions from around the world for a US$10,000 (RM37,000) prize in the Quit&Win competition, which has helped hundreds of thousands of people to stop smoking.
Local smokers who want to join the competition must pledge to stop smoking from May 1 to May 31.
Studies on previous participants have shown that an average of 20 per cent of smokers who participate in the competition eventually kick the habit for good.
Associate Professor Lekhraj Rampal of Universiti Putra Malaysia said that of the 1.1 billion smokers in the world, between 70 and 80 per cent had tried to give it up but failed.
"Quit&Win is a cost-effective, evidence-based and practical method to get people to quit.
"At the same time, we are able to inform the public about the harmful effects of smoking.
"When people start smoking, they don’t realise that it is not easy to give up once they are addicted to nicotine," he said.
Knowing the harmful effects may not be enough to prompt smokers to quit because of the nicotine addiction, he added.
UPM is jointly organising the local chapter of the competition with the Health Ministry, Malaysian Medical Association and the medical services division of the armed forces.
Quit&Win originated in Finland. The main organiser, Finland’s National Public Health Institute, with the co-operation of the World Health Organisation and the North Karelian Centre for Public Health, will evaluate the competition.
Rampal, who is chairman of the MMA’s committee on Action on Smoking and Health, said the organisers were targeting 3,000 local participants this year.
"The competition is a way to increase awareness, especially among youth, on the hazards of smoking," he said.
Tobacco, he said, was deadly in any form, be it normal or hand-rolled cigarettes, kretek (clove cigarettes), or whether it is chewed with betel nut or smoked in pipes.