I bought fat jab on Facebook for £150 then blacked out & almost died – when docs told me what was in it I was horrified
TEARS prick Michelle Sword’s eyes as she scrolls through photos of herself in hospital, tubes snaking in and out of her body.
The 45-year-old wasn’t there for a routine operation - she was fighting for her life after unknowingly injecting herself with fake Ozempic bought from a Facebook seller.
Now, two years on, the mum from Carterton, Oxon, wants to warn others about the dangers of "skinny jabs".
She tells Sun Club: “I’d never go anywhere near skinny jabs again - fake or otherwise. Being skinny isn’t worth dying for.”
Michelle bought an £150 Ozempic pen through an online pharmacy site three years ago after she put on two stone following the breakdown of her marriage.
“I’d always been a size 8-10 but the weight had been slowly creeping on as I turned to comfort eating,” she explains.
“I no longer recognised myself when I looked in the mirror. I was in a bad place and had been gorging on lots of greasy takeaways and drinking far too much alcohol.”
Michelle said much of the instructions were in a foreign language but it said to inject once a week.
“The jabs really worked – my appetite simply disappeared,” she recalls.
“Within three months I’d dropped two stone, going down to my regular weight of eight stone and a dress size 8.”
Michelle tells how she managed to maintain her weight loss until she gave up vaping in the summer of 2022.
“I began to replace vaping with food,” she explains.
“The weight started to creep back on. I’m a petite 5ft2 so a few extra pounds really show on me.
“I panicked and looked online for the same Ozempic pens. But this time I couldn’t find any pharmacies with any in stock.”
Desperate, in September 2023, she searched on Facebook and saw a company selling them.
“I paid £150 through Paypal, and two days later got a month’s supply,” she recalls.
'I could have died'
"They looked exactly the same, apart from the needles being separate. I injected around 16 clicks, but the vial barely went down. I put it back in the fridge - then everything went black.”
Luckily, her daughter Cadie, 13, unexpectedly came home from her dad’s house, and spotted her mum sweating and confused.
“Everything went black and I collapsed on the living room floor,” she continues.
“She called my friend Victoria, who dialled 999. Paramedics battled for 90 minutes to stabilise me, eventually reviving me in hospital.
“My blood sugar level was 0.2 – near death! Healthy blood sugar should be between 4 and 7.”
Terrifyingly, doctors later tested the pen and it was full of insulin, Michelle says.
“I could have died,” she adds, choking back tears.
“My daughter could’ve found me dead on the floor. That thought haunts me to this day.”
There’s no quick fix to losing weight, it’s all about making sensible decisions and regularly going to the gym and eating a balanced diet
Today, Michelle is a healthy size 8-10, fluctuating between 9st and 9.5st.
“I’m much healthier,” she explains.
“There’s no quick fix to losing weight, it’s all about making sensible decisions and regularly going to the gym and eating a balanced diet.
“I’d never touch skinny jabs again - fake or otherwise - and want people to know the dangers.
"If I can stop one person from using them, then sharing my story is worth it.”
Everything you need to know about fat jabs
Weight loss jabs are all the rage as studies and patient stories reveal they help people shed flab at almost unbelievable rates, as well as appearing to reduce the risk of serious diseases.
Wegovy – a modified version of type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic – and Mounjaro are the leading weight loss injections used in the UK.
Wegovy, real name semaglutide, has been used on the NHS for years while Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is a newer and more powerful addition to the market.
Mounjaro accounts for most private prescriptions for weight loss and is set to join Wegovy as an NHS staple this year.
How do they work?
The jabs work by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less so your body burns fat for energy instead and you lose weight.
They do this my mimicking a hormone called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when the stomach is full, so the drugs are officially called GLP-1 receptor agonists.
They slow down digestion and increase insulin production, lowering blood sugar, which is why they were first developed to treat type 2 diabetes in which patients' sugar levels are too high.
Can I get them?
NHS prescriptions of weight loss drugs, mainly Wegovy and an older version called Saxenda (chemical name liraglutide), are controlled through specialist weight loss clinics.
Typically a patient will have to have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, classifying them as medically obese, and also have a weight-related health condition such as high blood pressure.
GPs generally do not prescribe the drugs for weight loss.
Private prescribers offer the jabs, most commonly Mounjaro, to anyone who is obese (BMI of 30+) or overweight (BMI 25-30) with a weight-related health risk.
Private pharmacies have been rapped for handing them out too easily and video calls or face-to-face appointments are now mandatory to check a patient is being truthful about their size and health.
Are there any risks?
Yes – side effects are common but most are relatively mild.
Around half of people taking the drug experience gut issues, including sickness, bloating, acid reflux, constipation and diarrhoea.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant at patient.info, said: “One of the more uncommon side effects is severe acute pancreatitis, which is extremely painful and happens to one in 500 people.”
Other uncommon side effects include altered taste, kidney problems, allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and hypoglycemia.
Evidence has so far been inconclusive about whether the injections are damaging to patients' mental health.
Figures obtained by The Sun show that, up to January 2025, 85 patient deaths in the UK were suspected to be linked to the medicines.
