Contest against tobacco

Health lobby heavyweights the Heart Foundation, Barnardos and Plunket are backing a Cancer Society campaign to alert young people to the dangers of smoking tobacco, and now the society wants to enlist backup from the kids themselves.

Marlborough Cancer Society's new health promotion co-ordinator Corinne Payne, who is a former oncology nurse, has organised a competition for primary, intermediate and secondary school students. Primary students are invited to design a kite with a smokefree or fresh air theme, intermediate pupils are encouraged to design a poster, write a letter or newspaper article discouraging fellow students from starting smoking and secondary students are challenged to design a radio campaign advertisement aimed at 10 to 19-year-olds.

"I'm acutely aware of how vulnerable young people are to tobacco marketing," said Mrs Payne, who hoped the students would instead start listening to each other. "I hope they can speak to each other on a level that I can't and make a difference for themselves.

"If we can get them involved in helping each other make decisions for themselves, it's probably more successful than me standing there and telling them what to do."

The winning entries for each section will get public exposure, with the best primary school classroom having their kites displayed at the Cancer Society offices in The Forum and the Marlborough District Library. Using the theme "Nah M8!", the winning written campaign poster or article will be published in the Marlborough Midweek and the best audio advertisement from college students will get air play on Marlborough radio station ZM. All schools will receive information about the competition in the next few days. The closing date for entries is May 8 with winners announced on May 15.

- The Marlborough Express