NEXT Wednesday is No Smoking Day and to mark this annual health awareness day we have taken a look back to previous events recorded in The Mail's picture archive.

No Smoking Day is intended to help smokers who want to quit and the first event was held on Ash Wednesday in 1984.

National research following the 2009 campaign claimed that one in 10 smokers quit on No Smoking Day.

In March 2003 the no smoking message was backed up in Barrow by a team of advisers from the Sure Start agency who toured the streets providing information to shoppers on health dangers from cigarettes.

Clair Wilson dressed as a giant cigarette on Dalton Road and midwife Mandy Allonby invited shoppers to try a smokerlyzer, which monitors carbon monoxide in the blood caused by smoking and traffic pollution.

Among those happy to have her carbon monoxide levels tested was non-smoker Rachael Hill, of Barrow.

Also in 2003, the maternity ward at Barrow's Furness General Hospital ran a No Smoking Day promotion which saw the presentation of bibs to new arrivals with the slogan "born smoke free".

The Mail, on Wednesday, March 13 in 2002, noted: "Stop smoking services throughout Morecambe Bay have dedicated specialists to help people stun out the habit for good.

"Smoking in pregnancy is a major concern in Barrow.

"The national average for smoking in pregnancy is 27 per cent - compared with 60 per cent in deprived Barrow wards covered  by the Sure Start agency."

In March 1998 health visitor Pat Procter spent No Smoking Day at Ulverston library trying to persuade people to quit the habit for good.

Information was handed to smokers about the costs and health risks of the habit.

She was back with displays at the library and in the Booths supermarket in March 2000 and said: "We know it can be hard to give up smoking.

"Our aim is to give people as much information as we can to help them decide to give up and on the support they need to actually do it.

"If there are enough interested people, we will run a six-week stop smoking group."

There was also a health fair held by Barrow Borough Council in 2000 and helping on the launch day was director of development Bernard Beckett, a non-smoker, who volunteered to try out a smokerlyzer.