YORK is taking part in a hard-hitting region-wide anti-smoking campaign which launches today.

Quit16, which highlights the 16 cancers associated with smoking and asks people to quit, will include TV and online advertising.

The campaign comes as every month 18 people from York area discover they have cancer caused by smoking.

While most smokers know about the link between smoking and lung cancer, Quit16 highlights 15 other associated cancers.

These are cancers of the mouth, nasal cavities, pharynx and larynx, stomach, kidney, bowel, liver, pancreas, ureter, oesophagus, cervix, bladder and ovaries as well as myeloid leukaemia.

The campaign, which has the website www.QUIT16.co.uk, is being run by local tobacco control alliances, collaborating as Breathe 2025, and supported by Cancer Research UK.

It is based on an initiative first developed and run in Australia in 2014 where 74 per cent of smokers who saw it seriously considered quitting and 20 per cent discussed stopping with a health professional as a result.

Yorkshire and the Humber has the highest adult smoking rates in the country, with 20 per cent still smoking.

City of York Council’s interim director of public health, Sharon Stoltz, said: “‘The films and message are brutally honest: there are 16 cancers caused by smoking.

"Some will kill you quickly, others more slowly and it’s you and your family that have to live through it.

"Stopping smoking is the best thing you can do to reduce the risk that one of those deaths will be you.

“Quitting isn’t easy but there is lots of help out there from personalised texts to emails and apps.

"You can find out details of support near you on the campaign website York jhoins ”

The council's executive member for adult social care and health, cllr Carol Runciman said: “We want to make sure the next generation of children born and brought up in York never start smoking and grow up free of the terrible health harms associated with tobacco.

"If you already smoke, trying to quit is a great way to help make that happen.”