THE county's NHS stop smoking service has helped a record-breaking 6,010 Lincolnshire people break the habit in a year.

These determined quitters have each proven to staff at NHS Lincolnshire's flagship Phoenix Stop Smoking Service they have stayed off cigarettes for a four-week period during the 2009/10 financial year.

This was a 16 per cent leap from the 5,201 county quitters in 2008/09.

But although the Phoenix Stop Smoking Service is now ranked as the most successful county service in England, manager Gary Burroughs said there is still plenty of work to do, with one in three adults in Lincoln still smoking.

NHS Lincolnshire has invested £1.7 million in the service during the current 2010/11 financial year and in return expects to see a further 6,482 quitters.

Mr Burroughs said: "NHS Lincolnshire is committed to supporting people to quit smoking and have invested very highly in the service.

"We are trying to target hard to reach groups that are the ones in which the quit rates have dropped the least over the years, such as manual workers.

"We have been into workplaces such as Siemens, NHS organisations, the county council and some of the big agricultural companies to offer one-to-one and group sessions to staff struggling to get to our quit shop in Lincoln.

"We also run a bespoke pregnancy service to help pregnant women to stop smoking and also stop them from starting again after they have delivered.

"We spend a lot of time in hospitals helping patients quit and are doing far more work in advertising and marketing our service."

Mr Burroughs said school pupils are also a big target group.

However, due to an increasing number of parents no longer smoking, there is a knock-on effect of fewer youngsters picking it up.

"If fewer parents smoke, there is less of an uptake," said Mr Burroughs.

"There are still far too many children starting to smoke each year, but it is becoming less and less."

The Phoenix Stop Smoking Service has been run at Lincolnshire Co-operative's Moorland Avenue pharmacy for many years.

Pharmacist Di Gallon said: "There is a very robust training scheme for the Phoenix advisers and our technician runs three clinics a week which are extremely popular. She is inundated with cards, chocolates and flowers from grateful people who always come in happy to tell us they haven't started smoking again.

"Quitting smoking is one of the biggest steps they can take to improve their health as it is the biggest contributor to poor health."

Call NHS Lincolnshire's Phoenix Stop Smoking Service on 01522 550681.