Hard-up smokers who want to quit could get a bit of help thanks to a new 149,000 service.

The Oxfordshire Smoking Cessation Service plans to offer smokers a week's free supply of nicotine patches to kickstart their efforts.

Oxfordshire has been allocated the money from a Government pot of 2m to tackle smoking and part of the cash will be used to pay for the patches.

Many smokers are put off using the patches to help wean them off nicotine because of the cost.