Wellness Center offers incentive to stop smoking

The Great American Smokeout is coming up on Nov. 16, and Faith Community Hospital is offering the community an opportunity to help smokers kick their unhealthy habit. From now through Nov. 30, the hospital is offering free one-month memberships to the Swan Family Wellness Center when new members turn-in their cigarettes and sign up for a one-year membership.

“Here at FCH, we’ve seen firsthand how smoking leads to lung cancer and other health conditions. It is through this experience that we’re trying to motivate smokers in our community to turn a negative habit into something positive: exercise,” says Joe Copeland, wellness director at the Swan Family Wellness Center, a service of FCH. “Our new fitness center is truly a state-of-the-art facility unique to our region. With the perfect balance of cardio machines, free weights and exercise classes, we can help everyone in our community achieve a better state of health.”

Tobacco use is the single greatest cause of premature death in the United States. Lung cancer also happens to be the No. 1 cause of death from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Celebrated on the third Thursday of November each year, the Great American Smokeout is an effort by the American Cancer Society to encourage smokers to give up their possibly deadly habit. FCH is a strong supporter of this program, which began more than 30 years ago.

Approximately 36 million American adults are cigarette smokers, accounting for nearly 15.1 percent of the nation’s population. Each day, more than 3,200 youth aged 18 years or younger smoke their first cigarette, and an additional 2,100 youth and young adults become daily cigarette smokers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that cigarette smoking is responsible for approximately 480,000 deaths per year in the U.S., including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. That translates into approximately 1,300 deaths each day.

Studies show that 46 million smoking Americans want to quit their habit, but either do not know how or lack the resources to stop. It is for this reason that FCH is offering an incentive to help residents quit their habit.

Copeland says that the membership promotion is open only to new members and cannot be combined with any other offer. The program includes a one-to-one session with an exercise specialist who can help members determine their fitness goals and develop a strategy to make the most of their membership.

The Swan Family Wellness Center, which opened earlier this year, offers a wealth of amenities, including TechnoGym exercise equipment with state-of-the-art features, regularly scheduled exercise and fitness classes, an indoor climate-controlled heated pool, member-exclusive perks and networking opportunities, wellness education classes and much more.

“We’re excited to offer this program to our community,” Copeland says. “We’ve received plenty of positive feedback, and this is just one of many programs that we’re excited to roll out to help individuals in our community finally stop smoking and commit to a fit lifestyle.”

For more information about the membership offer to the Swan Family Wellness Center, call 940-216-2379.