Rachael is Professor of Population Health at the University of Nottingham, with a passion for research into tobacco control and ways to support people to stop smoking.
Over the past 20 years Professor Murray has developed her specialism in smoking research.
Progress and developments are constantly being made, and in the University, Nottingham has one of the country’s leading centres for smoking research on the doorstep.
From doing that very first project, it just sucked me in, how multifaceted I think smoking was and the impact it had on people. The real potential that there was to make change.
She grew up around smokers, and confesses that, before her work in the field, she might have been judgemental towards people who smoke. She describes how she has come to understand the difficulties of addiction, despite people’s awareness of the harm it is causing and their desire to change.
They are sacrificing their finance, their social circles. They know they're jeopardising their children in terms of both their health outcomes now, but also in the future, because people are aware that their behaviour will impact their children. The quality of their life because of their smoking behaviour is really lower than it should be. These are people who are desperate to make a change.
Professor Murray recognises that people who smoke might need support in multiple aspects of their lives, such as with mental health or finances. She is confident that the work that the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Smoking and Tobacco Alliance is doing to bring together services with their own specialist knowledge, will give people the best possible chance of a successful quit journey.
We're a lot better at the way we approach this now as researchers and as stop smoking practitioners. Some people we’re speaking to accessed Stop Smoking Services 25 years ago and had a bad experience and haven't been near it since. Take a look at what's changed, this is how things have moved on, this is what's now available. Come and try something - it won't cost you anything.
Professor Murray feels it is vital to take a tailored approach to support, and her research at the University of Nottingham includes looking at how to make sure services are easy as possible for anyone to access.
She is positive about the work happening in the region and is hopeful for the findings from research to continue to be used to develop and improve the stop smoking support on offer.
What would you say to a smoker who is thinking of quitting?
My advice would be to reach out and investigate what’s on offer, and don't assume that you already know what's there and what's going to work, because things have moved on a lot. There is support for things wider than just the smoking behavior, and we can offer help with those things that are feeding in.
Have that conversation and find out whether it is the right time or not and whether the appropriate support is available. Until you have that conversation, you're not going to know.