The biggest drive to cut the number of smokers on one city estate is being hailed a success.

Nearly 1,500 people living in New Parks have set a date to quit following the three-month campaign billed as Lose the Smoker in You.

Managers from NHS Leicester City's Stop! smoking service said the number of quitters was still rising as more people came forward for help.

During the campaign, which ran for three months from September, volunteers pounded the streets, knocking on doors and visiting community groups and persuading people to stub out their cigarettes.

Roadshows were run and stop smoking advisers toured the neighbourhood, where it is estimated about 40.5% of adults smoke – nearly twice the national average of 22%.

Figures show that 1,442 people set a date to quit – 13% more than in the same period the previous year.

New Parks was chosen for the first campaign on such a scale after drug company Pfizer, which developed and paid for it, invited people across the country to say why their neighbourhood deserved to benefit first from the project.

Louise Ross, NHS Leicester City's Stop! smoking manager, put forward New Parks.

She said: "It had one of the highest rates of smoking in the country and a survey showed that more than half the smokers wanted to give up."

Danny Reid, 41, is one the campaign's quitters. The dad of six, from New Parks, stopped smoking 12 weeks ago.

He said: "I had been thinking about quitting for a while.

"My youngest daughter, Lois, is seven months old and I want to be able to walk her down the aisle when she is older.

"I had wanted to give up for a while and when I saw the roadshow I decided to give it a go."

Danny, who has smoked between 20 and 30 cigarettes a day for the past 24 years, said he was already feeling healthier.

He said: "I have had a few difficult times with various work and family pressures but I don't miss cigarettes.

"It is so good not to smell of them and to know that I can kiss my little girl and not worry I am passing on the nicotine."

His wife, Izzy, 31, said: "It's lovely. He holds the children's hands when we go out instead of having a cigarette in his hand."

There are now plans to roll out similar campaigns in other areas of the city, including the Saffron Lane area and Northfields.

Television's Street Doctor, Dr Jonty Heaversedge, who launched the campaign, said: "This campaign is unique in the way it has involved collaboration between the community and the NHS."