Who we are
About Us
A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation rooted in Linlithgow, built on the conviction that people quit better together.
Vibrant Health Advocates – Marenne is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation operating in Linlithgow and the surrounding West Lothian area. We exist to make meaningful, lasting stop-smoking support available to everyone in this community — regardless of how many times they've tried before, what they earn, or how deeply smoking is woven into their daily life.
We believe that access to a warm, non-judgmental space where quitting is treated as a shared endeavour, not a personal failing, changes the odds for the people who walk through our doors.
Our model centres on peer cessation groups — small, regular gatherings facilitated by trained volunteers who have quit smoking themselves. These facilitators are not professionals parachuted in from elsewhere; they are Linlithgow residents, parents, workers and neighbours who understand the rhythms and pressures of life in this town.
Along the loch, Linlithgow
That local credibility matters enormously. When someone who used to smoke on their lunch break at the Regent Centre, or who reached for a cigarette after the school run, tells you they quit and stayed quit, the encouragement carries a different weight. We pair this peer dynamic with current, evidence-based cessation guidance, signposting to NHS stop-smoking services, and practical tools for managing cravings, triggers and the longer road of sustained abstinence.
Since our registration as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, we have grown steadily by listening carefully to what Linlithgow residents tell us they need. We have extended our session times, added a dedicated group for those who have relapsed and feel embarrassed to return, and developed a discreet one-to-one check-in system for participants navigating particularly difficult weeks. We are proud of that responsiveness. This is a living organisation shaped by its community, and we intend to keep it that way.
Vibrant Health Advocates – Marenne exists to help people in Linlithgow and the wider West Lothian area stop smoking for good — not through judgement or prescription, but through the combined power of trusted information and genuine peer support. We convene regular cessation groups that pair evidence-based stop-smoking guidance with the lived experience of trained peer facilitators who have walked the same road, creating spaces where quitting feels achievable, relapse feels recoverable, and long-term health feels within reach for every resident who walks through our doors.
Vibrant Health Advocates – Marenne grew out of a series of informal conversations held by a small group of Linlithgow residents who had each, at different times, tried to quit smoking and found the available support either too clinical, too distant, or simply too easy to disengage from.
They weren't dismissing the value of NHS stop-smoking services — they were asking what could sit alongside them, closer to home, rooted in the texture of everyday life in a town where smoking rates remained stubbornly above national targets and where the social dimensions of the habit made quitting feel isolating.
The answer they arrived at was simple and human: bring people together, regularly, in a place they already trust, and let the shared experience do much of the work that information alone cannot.
The organisation was formally constituted as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation to give that idea a durable, accountable structure. The name Marenne — meaning something akin to 'of the sea' in old usage, a word the founders chose for its connotations of persistence and movement — reflects the understanding that change is rarely a single wave but a sustained tide.
From those early group sessions in a community hall to the multi-session, multi-venue programme we run today, the animating idea has remained unchanged: that people in Linlithgow deserve stop-smoking support that feels like it belongs to them.
Where it all began
Vibrant Health Advocates – Marenne is governed by a board of trustees who bring together expertise in public health, community development, and charitable finance alongside deep personal connections to Linlithgow and West Lothian.
They are supported by a dedicated cohort of trained peer facilitators — volunteers who have quit smoking themselves and who give their time week after week to sit with others on the same journey. Together, the board and facilitators form the backbone of an organisation that is, at every level, shaped by the community it serves.
No commitment required. Whether you want to join a group, volunteer, or just find out more — get in touch.
Get in touch