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Anti-smoking advocates want to make this month's Stoptober a quit effort the whole community can get behind.
Boyd Broughton from Action on Smoking and Health says last year more than 5000 people signed up for the first Stoptober 31-day challenge to quit cigarettes, and organisers are hoping to more than double that.
They are also encouraging non-smokers to sign up and encourage smoking friends and whanau to get involved in the effort.
He says there's a much better chance of the campaign working if the 85 percent of New Zealanders who don't smoke help the 15 percent who still do.
"Rather than it just coming from the health sector, the tobacco control sector, from nurses and doctors, if we have it coming from the community, and in a nice way, and in a positive manner, so that's why the campaign has 'stopping can be the start of …' and you put your own goal and dream you want to achieve by stopping smoking, so we're trying to make it a whole community movement if we can," Mr Broughton says.
Follow up questioning of people who registered on the Stoptober website last year indicated about 20 percent had managed to stay off the cigarettes because of the programme.
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