With 2020 finally out of the way and our thoughts quickly turning to a new year, the talk of New Year's resolutions will no doubt be a hot topic over the coming weeks.
Smokers have been hit in the pocket again this year with the price of tobacco increasing by 1.4 per cent, so one resolution many will be looking to kick is to stop smoking. It's something Dunedin woman Margaret Kirk is committing to.
"Unbeknown to my parents, I started [smoking] since I was 12 years old," she told 1 NEWS.
Helping her quit the habit will be a new quit smoking initiative run at her local Dunedin doctors' clinic this summer.
He Manu Kokiri is a four-week workshop run at Dunedin's Te Kaika clinic, a programme where patients are admitted through their GP.
"This is empowering people to work together, to go on a journey and they never know where they'll end up. Somewhere better we hope," Te Kaika clinical director Kim Maiai says.
Roughly 25 per cent of the clinic's 5400 patients are smokers.
While the clinic supports other services like Quitline, it decided to go one step further in hope of more success.
The programme offers patients use of its free on-site gym, meetings with health coaches, use of the on-site community garden and access to walking groups.
The aim to get people wanting to quit, talking to others in a similar scenario
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