BOLTON'S Smoking Cessation Service is setting an ambitious new target of helping 4,000 smokers to give up the habit in the next three years.

From April the service, run by Bolton Primary Care Trust (PCT), will employ four advisers to support those struggling to give up their cigarettes.

As in previous years a bank of part-time advisers will also be on call to join them in times of peak demand such as the New Year and March's No Smoking Day when many smokers resolve to quit.

Lesley Jones, specialist in public health, is leading Bolton PCT's "tobacco control" efforts.

She said: "The figure of 4,000 over the next three years is quite a challenge but it's right for us to set our sights high. We know that 60 to 70 per cent of smokers want to give up. That's a massive proportion."

The Smoking Cessation Service encourages those kicking the habit to form support groups. For those who would rather not participate, one-on-one sessions with advisers are also available.

Advisers offer help with issues such as preparing to stop, setting a quit date and preventing a relapse.

Would-be quitters refer themselves to the service but their GPs may choose to prescribe them nicotine replacement therapy or the drug Zyban which has been shown to help some quitters.

Research has shown that people trying to quit on their own stand up to 25 per cent less chance of succeeding than those with some kind of support.

Experts say the physical craving for cigarettes, even among heavy smokers, can disappear as soon as a week after giving up. But the psychological cravings may last much longer.

The Smoking Cessation team was set up in 1998 by the now defunct Wigan and Bolton Health Authority to combat the borough's biggest killer. Bolton has the third worst record for lung cancer deaths in the North-west.