FOR this week's trip down memory lane we look back ten years to our coverage of a group of Helensburgh hairdressers who decided to cut out cigarettes for National No Smoking Day.

Are you one of the stylists in the picture? Was your attempt to kick the habit a success? Or, if you're not one of those pictured, have you used National No Smoking Day this year to try and help you stop smoking - and how's it going so far?

Here's how we covered the story in the Advertiser on March 22, 2007...

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A GROUP of Helensburgh hairdressers have teamed up to cut out cigarettes.

Jill Roberts, aged 39, and four of the five stylists at her salon on West Princes Street kick-started their quest to quit last Wednesday — National No Smoking Day.

Jill and her team decided to stub out the ciggies after getting advice from one of their regulars, Anne Helsop, the clinical co-ordinator for NHS Highlands.

Jill said: “Anne knows we are smokers and she suggested we try a cessation group.

“We think it’s going to be easier to give up as a group because we’ll all be able to help each other out and give each other a little push.”

Louise Hunter, aged 26, added: “I’m expecting giving up to be very hard at times. My boyfriend smokes so unless he gives up too it’s going to be difficult.

“I want to do it because I worry about the health issues. My grandad had lung cancer and my dad had a heart attack and that was due to smoking.”

Smoking cessation advisor Graeme Matthew held a group session at the shop to prepare the girls for their challenge.

Graeme runs Stub It Out, a smoking cessation service in the Helensburgh and Lomond area giving free advice and support to people who want to stop smoking. The group hold smoking cessation support groups and supply stop smoking aids like nicotine replacement therapy.

He said: “If you really want to stop and you believe that you can, with the use of nicotine replacement products and help from us it can be much easier than people think.”