Quitting smoking isn't easy, even with the advent of e-cigarettes. The NHS Stop Smoking Services (SSSs) were established in 2000, and have shown superior results to nicotine replacement alone, but are characterised by low, and dropping, attendance rates. Beneath the highlight figure of a halving of UK smoking prevalence over the past 40 years lies a direct £6 billion cost to the NHS and 80000 deaths each year, as well as recent concern that clinical commissioning groups are not renewing service funding. Given that the ‘health belief model’ is based upon a trigger changing behaviour, what will encourage attendance at SSSs, especially with evidence that smokers underestimate their own personal risk? Gilbert et al randomised over 4000 smokers across almost 100 general practices to receive either a standard generic advertisement of the SSS clinic, or an individually tailored risk letter and invitation to a no-commitment introductory SSS session. The hosting general practitioners (GPs) and SSS advisors were masked to the allocation. The personalised letter more than doubled the odds of attending the SSS, showing that a more proactive approach can help engagement. Interestingly, the intervention was more effective with men, who are typically less likely to attend and set quit dates.