A NORTH-EAST doctor is making a powerful New Year plea to smokers – make 2021 the year you quit and don’t wait to have regrets. It comes as new figures show that quit success rates this year among those who tried were higher than at any point since 2007. Nearly half (48 per cent) of all 18-24 year old smokers made a quit attempt in the last year. This is believed to be the highest quit rate since 2007 when the age of sale was increased to 18 and England introduced comprehensive indoor smokefree legislation. Data released earlier in 2020 shows the Covid-19 pandemic led to a surge in quitting with around million people making a quit attempt during the first national lock down.