Soul star Lemar launches competition to help young people say no to smoking
Good morning!
Today soul star Lemar announced the launch of national anti-smoking charity The Deborah Hutton Campaign's new competition called Cut Films, in conjunction with No Smoking Day, which challenges young people to make a short creative film about ‘why smoking isn’t cool’.
Watch his film here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88eoqKhu5JQ
Please find the story below and feel free to use the video too. Would consider covering the story as thousands of young people get involved?
I look forward to hearing from you,
Kind regards,
Phoebe
Twitter: @cutfilms
Facebook: Cut Films
Monday 6th September, 2010
Soul star Lemar supports competition to help young people say no to smoking
National anti-smoking charity The Deborah Hutton Campaign has just launched an exciting, new competition called Cut Films, in conjunction with No Smoking Day, which challenges young people to make a short creative film about ‘why smoking isn’t cool’.
Cut Films is now inviting entries from as many young people as possible nationwide, and has already attracted widespread support, including from the multi-platinum, chart-topping soul singer Lemar, who is an Ambassador for national charity No Smoking Day.
Lemar says, “What really excites me about Cut Films is that this isn’t just a bunch of adults telling you what to do. It’s about young people getting together, getting creative and getting to voice their own opinions on the issue of smoking.”
Thanks to his mother's strongly held opposition to smoking, Lemar has never taken up the habit himself, but is all too aware of the damage that smoking causes to people's lives.
He adds, “I’m not here to lecture anyone, but I do want to help make sure that other young people get the same good advice about not smoking that I was lucky enough to have when I was younger. I think Cut Films is a really great way of spreading the word that smoking isn’t big, and I want to encourage as many people as possible to get involved!”
Taking part in Cut Films is really easy, and you don’t have to be Hollywood’s next Spielberg or have the latest film-making equipment either - you can just film a short clip from your mobile phone and upload the entry straight onto the Cut Films website at: http://www.cutfilms.org/.
The site is packed full of ideas to help you get started, and even lets you broadcast and share your film with other young people through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Winners and runners up will be announced on No Smoking Day, which is Wednesday 9th March, 2011. There’s a range of prizes up for grabs, and all of the winners will also have their films premiered at a special Awards Ceremony in London, later that month.
Cut Films has roots in very personal events. It was set up after Deborah Hutton, who was health editor of Vogue fashion magazine for more than twenty years, died of lung cancer, aged 49, as a result of smoking in her teens and early twenties.
Her husband, Charlie Stebbings, a leading UK film director, and eldest daughter, Romilly, who is 20, are now spearheading Cut Films to help ensure that her important message encouraging young people not to start smoking lives on.
Romilly says, “Being 14, being told that I was about to lose my mum forever to an aggressive cancer that was due to a brief stint of smoking in her teens was the most painful thing I have ever experienced.
“I can never quite understand smokers now, when they know what they are doing could so easily mean that their life is cut short and that their family’s future could be damaged like mine was – if Cut Films can persuade even just one person to stop smoking, then it will be worthwhile.
Charlie adds; “Smoking is still one of the biggest killers today. It’s estimated that around 250,000 people in England will start smoking and get addicted this year – and most of them will be under the age of 18. That has huge implications and my hope is that taking part in the Cut Films competition will give lots of young people a fun and creative way to explore the messages that they think will stop other young people from smoking.”
Further information about Cut Films and full details about how to take part in the competition are available online at: http://www.cutfilms.org/.
View full endorsement message from Lemar on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwoNdG4Sz_c
ENDS
Notes to Editor
For more information about this story, please contact PR Manager for Cut Films, Phoebe Rowell / email: phoebe.rowell@icegroupuk.com / tel: 0151 647 4700 Alternatively, please contact Vishnee Sauntoo at the No Smoking Day Press Office / email: press@nosmokingday.org.uk / tel: 020 7739 5110
• The Deborah Hutton Campaign is a registered charity working in tandem with existing government and charitable initiatives to reduce the prevalence of smoking among young people. Its Cut Films initiative closely supports the first objective outlined within the Department of Health’s recent Tobacco Control Strategy for England by positively engaging with young people on the issue of smoking through creative communication. Visit: http://www.thedeborahhuttoncampaign.org/
• No Smoking Day is a national charity that runs the highly successful annual health campaign helping smokers who want to quit. Now in its 28th year, the campaign’s mission is to inspire as many smokers as possible to break free from the chains of their addiction and take control of their health and looks. Nearly three quarters of a million smokers in the UK kicked the habit on this year’s No Smoking Day – March 10, 2010. The charity has also recently launched WeQuit – a Facebook application to help people quit. Visit: www.wequit.co.uk/facebook or http://www.nosmokingday.org.uk/
Supporting Information on Smoking
• In England today, there are over 2 million fewer adult smokers than there were a decade ago, but smoking still causes over 80,000 deaths every year, and is still the leading cause of health inequalities. Over 8 million people in England smoke; half of them may be expected to die prematurely from smoking.
• This year alone, it is estimated that around 250,000 people in England will start smoking and the majority of these will be under the age of 18.
• According to ASH UK (Action on Smoking and Health), 1 in 7 15 year olds regularly smoke and 2 out of every 3 smokers begin the habit before the age of 18.
• Although the proportion of young people aged 11-15 who smoke has fallen over the last ten years, in 2008 it was reported that approximately 6% smoked. At age 11 the prevalence of smoking was less than 0.5% but by age 15 the proportion who reported smoking at least once a week had risen to one in seven (14%) and around a third of pupils had tried smoking at least once.
• The prevalence of regular smokers aged 11- 15 varies by region from 5% in London to 10% in the North East, and is the leading cause of health equalities in England.
• The Tobacco Control Strategy for England, ‘A Smokefree Future’, published by the Department of Health on 1st February, 2010, outlined a vision of a smokefree future where communities are free from the harms of tobacco use and where people lead healthier and longer lives, with a focus on achieving the following three objectives:
1. To stop the inflow of young people recruited as smokers.
2. To motivate and assist every smoker to quit.
3. To protect families and communities from tobacco-related harm.
• The Deborah Hutton Campaign is a member of the Smokefree Action Coalition and is committed to defending the Health Act 2009 including bans on tobacco product displays and vending machines:
1. A government that cares about public health can’t allow themselves to cave in to the campaigns by those who manufacture and sell cigarettes
2. Point of sale promotion is the main form of tobacco advertising not only where tobacco advertising is banned as it is here but even where it is permitted as in the US.
3. Point of sale displays encourage youth smoking by giving the false impression that smoking is widespread and that tobacco products are only an arm’s reach away.
4. We need a point of sale display ban as part of a comprehensive programme to reduce youth smoking and protect young people from tobacco industry marketing.
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