A swarm of people in white shirts could be seen running around Coonamble last Wednesday 30 November, twelve teams took on the Amazing Race challenge as a part of Quit B Fit’s ‘Walking away from Smoking and Vaping’ day.

Quit B Fit works in partnership with the Wellington Aboriginal Corporation Health Service (WACHS) to reach Close the Gap targets.

More specifically, Quit B Fit focuses on ‘Tackling Indigenous Smoking’, through a series of community health promotion days like the Amazing Race challenge.

Australia has been fighting the smoking habit for decades now, and while there is still progress to be made, it’s a battle we’re slowly winning.

In 2021, the Cancer Council found that 38% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population are daily smokers, compared to the national average of 11.6%.

As concerning as this statistic may seem, it is still a far cry from the 53.1% of Indigenous Australians that smoked in 2002 – that’s a 15% reduction over twenty years!

A CPS student and staff BJ Wallace, Sheri Ewers, Joanne Lee, and Willie Ferguson pause at one of the checkpoints.

Community health promotion days like the ‘Walking away from Smoking and Vaping’ event are in part responsible for this reduction in smoking – they provide awareness of the issue and show a way forward, says the CEO of the WACHS, Darren Green.

“The Coonamble “Walking Away from Smoking and Vaping” community health promotion day is a strategy with interactive educational activities for our communities with key messages that if you are a current smoker or vaper there are services and supports that have resources for you to quit.”

“The event is also a way to bring all priority groups across our communities together to understand the harms associated with smoking and vaping and ensure we get the messages across around the importance of not taking up smoking and vaping in the first instance by providing information and groups sessions that demonstrate what smoking and vaping does to your body and health”.

“Lung cancer is the most significant cancer burden for Aboriginal people, along with our life expectancy 10 years below non Indigenous, so that’s why it’s important to design health promotion and education activities that are fun and engaging for various age groups across the community, because our friends, family and community are often our support systems, so with programs like this, we are educating everyone to think about their health all together, as one mob.”

As for the amazing race itself - what a hectic few hours!

Teams gathered at the Coonamble playing fields in the morning to collect their shirts and get some instructions and smoking information from some stalls.

But then they were off!

Contestants could be seen running off into town, where six different challenges awaited - ranging from balloon blowing and football, to memory games and word association.

The hardest of the challenges was saved for last, however - teams had to sling a ball up in the air, looking to hit a target ten metres away.

Despite a hard-fought contest, it was Team One - Mission Impossible that came away as the overall winner.

Smoking in Coonamble is also significantly higher than the national average; a study from the University of NSW in 2015 found that 24.5% of Coonamble smoked daily - compared to a national average of 15%.

If you are thinking of quitting smoking or vaping, Quitline can be called on 13 78 48.