In Pictures: Riot Rehab Bus rolls into Milton Keynes to spread its quit smoking message

Apprentice star Rochelle Anthony swapped Lord Sugar's boardroom for a stint on the Riot Rehab Bus which visited Milton Keynes on Saturday.

Rochelle is currently starring in BBC1’s The Apprentice, vying to become Lord Sugar’s potential business partner.

But she took time off her busy schedule to hop aboard the Riot Rehab Bus which has been converted into a pop-up hair salon offering free haircuts to smokers wanting to quit the habit.

Rochelle runs her own hair salon, The Dolls House, in Central Milton Keynes. She said: “As a salon owner, I know how engaging the interactions between stylists and clients can be. It’s a really useful segment of time where they tend to zen out and just listen.

“It’s great Riot Rehab recognised the power of the salon chair as a moment to educate people on quitting smoking, and to be back in my hometown to lend a hand was really exciting. It went really well.”

The Riot Rehab service is dedicated to smokers, or those trying to quit.

Riot Rehab believes the pop-up, “taking the scissors to tobacco use”, is exactly what’s needed in MK to help the estimated 15% of the population that still smoke, to quit.

The initiative kicked-off a big year of quit-smoking schemes in the Milton Keynes area for Riot Rehab, which is seeking to help make the region Smoke Free by 2025, ahead of the government’s national target of 2030.

Ben Johnson, founder of Riot Labs which created Riot Rehab as a vehicle to help people quit smoking, explained: “Riot Rehab is on a mission to create a smoke-free world, and we’ve always tackled the issue of helping people quit smoking through disruptive methods compared to other brands and Government-backed health organisations.”

Photographs by Jane Russell

> Rochelle spoke to the MK Citizen ahead of the bus’s visit to MK about what inspired her to apply as a candidate on The Apprentice and why she joined the team on the Riot Rehab Bus. Read the full story here