Quit Right Waltham Forest
Quit Right Waltham Forest is a partnership between
the Queen Mary University of London and the Waltham Forest Council.
About Us
Our Delivery & Approach
The Queen Mary University of London has extensive experience delivering culturally sensitive advice and support in helping people give up tobacco, both smoking and smokeless. It is one of the first services to support people who chew smokeless tobacco in paan and shisha in the UK.
QMUL’s Dental Institute pioneered research using nicotine replacement therapy to help smokeless tobacco cessation. While the Tobacco Dependency Unit at QMUL, led by Professor Peter Hajek, pioneered smoking cessation treatment with behavioural support.
Quit Right Waltham Forest was commissioned in September 2021 to support a larger population of smokers.
We propose the ‘hub and spoke’ model to create partnerships where we can provide sessions at core locations within the community or set up referrals from key partners like GP Networks, Pharmacists, Northeast London Foundation Trust, and Maternity services. This increases opportunities to access priority groups.
The BME Stop Tobacco Project
The specialist tobacco cessation service for the borough provides state-of-the-art stop-smoking medications and clinical expertise to aid members of the community overcome tobacco addiction. The service was formed in August 2017 via the merger of two independent services: The BME Stop Tobacco Project and the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit.
The Queen Mary University of London has been researching and providing tobacco cessation services for the last 25 years in response to the high prevalence of smoking within the local community and wider UK.
They also pioneered stopping tobacco chewing amongst Bangladeshi women and smoking cessation among Bangladeshi men, and the similar prevalence of smokeless tobacco use among Bangladeshi women. Formerly known as the ‘Bangladeshi Stop Tobacco Project’, The project was the first of its kind, offering gender-specific advisors who accommodated the cultural and religious issues and sensitivities faced by patients who may prefer same-sex advisors and language support. Advisors offered nicotine replacement products to smokeless tobacco users to assist them in quitting.
Tobacco Dependence Research Unit
The Tobacco Dependence Research Unit has formed almost 20 years ago and is one of the founders of the European Centre of Excellence in Clinical Tobacco Research. Under the direction of Professor Peter Hajek, the Unit was involved in the first published trials of several treatments now used globally and was instrumental in developing withdrawal-oriented treatment of tobacco addiction, now the primary approach used by the UK Specialist Stop Smoking Service, which treats over 600,000 smokers per year.
The Unit’s research has been instrumental in establishing current clinical practice and guidelines for treating tobacco dependency in the UK and worldwide.
Pioneering Research
Recently, the Unit has been at the forefront of research that has informed Public Health England’s recognition of the tremendous potential for e-cigarette use to reduce smoking prevalence and addiction.
We are proud that many breakthrough advances in tobacco cessation theory and practice were pioneered in Tower Hamlets. Quit Right Tower Hamlets synthesises the TDRU’s and BME’s individual expertise into a single focus. Each service has worked for over two decades in Tower Hamlets and built an exemplary track record of tobacco cessation success among local service users. Quit Right Tower Hamlets is, therefore, able to offer an unparalleled level of expertise and experience to its service users.