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NHS Bristol has recruited volunteers to tweet their experience of quitting smoking in the New Year.

The NHS local authority teamed up with the Bristol Evening Post to identify five 'Twitter Qwitters' who will tweet their experiences of giving up smoking via the 'Twitter Quitter' Twitter handle.

Each of the volunteers has been given an iPhone to receive tweets, advice and emails of support.

The volunteers will be tweeting about their progress. They will also receive messages from the NHS Stop Smoking team.

Samantha Turner, communications manager at NHS Bristol, said: 'Giving up smoking is so difficult and we recognise that. We are always looking at new ways of helping people to give up.'

Turner said anyone interested in getting involved can go to @imaqwitter and #twitterqwitter.

The Bristol NHS Trust says smokers are four times more likely to quit with the help of Smokefree Bristol.  

People spent around £17.7 billion on tobacco in 2010 during which time 81,700 died from smoking related illnesses, the authority says.

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