You've heard it a million times: Keep smoking and you'll get lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema. But despite all of that, it's difficult to quit.

Quitting smoking is hard, there's no doubt about it. However, if you can tough it out for at least two years, chances are good you'll never light another cigarette again.

Smoking kills up to 50 000 South Africans a year and is a huge burden on the health care system and economy. So what's being done to curb what are essentially preventable deaths?