A man reduced to “crying on his knees” after being refused NHS access to weight loss injections has lost nine stone and saved thousands by going private.
Grandfather of two, Mark Spurr, 53, has dropped from 30 stone to 21 stone and shaved eight inches off his waist after starting weekly Mounjaro injections eight months ago.
The security officer had pleaded with his GP in June for NHS treatment upon discovering that he couldn’t fit into the needed stab-proof vest for work at a Leeds immigration centre and struggled to walk from the car park.
With a body-mass index (BMI) score of 57, flying off the chart, he still didn’t meet the NHS criteria, which necessitate a BMI over 35 with at least one weight-related illness for those with “the highest clinical needs”.
Determined to save both his job and his life, Mark turned to Cloud Pharmacy, embarking on private treatment starting from £100 a month.
Now, not only has he shed pounds but he’s also benefited financially – claiming to have kept £2,000 in his pocket by foregoing the £400 monthly spend on snacks and takeaways, all courtesy of the medication that tricks the brain into feeling full.
“Mounjaro’s changed my life and it might have even saved my life,” Mark told PA Real Life. “I couldn’t walk across the car park in June and last weekend, I hiked Whernside mountain in the Yorkshire Dales.
“When I went to the GP, I was basically on my hands and knees crying my eyes out and pleading with them to prescribe it to me, I was in so much pain.
“I might as well have been smashing my head against a brick wall as I was told I didn’t fit the criteria. But they recommended that I take it privately and now I feel fantastic.”
Mark, from Morley, West Yorkshire, started to gain weight when he left school aged 15 and took a job as a joiner for Leeds City Council. Ten years ago, his weight spiralled after the death of his mum Susan Spurr, in her 60s.
“Food was a coping mechanism,” said Mark. He joined a Slimming World group but his weight kept yo-yoing.
On a typical day, he would consume a sausage, spam, and egg sandwich for breakfast, followed by a bacon roll, a pastry, and a coffee. For lunch, he would have a sandwich, pasty, bun, and cake, while for dinner, he would have takeaway fish and chips, with snacks of multipack crisps and chocolate in between.
Things came to a head last year when Mark could no longer fit into the stab-proof vest he was required to wear for work and feared he would lose his job. “I felt depressed, tired all the time but unable to sleep, and full of anxiety like I was struggling in an 85-year-old’s body,” he said.
“I was wearing shorts and T-shirts in winter because I was sweating by the time I’d walked from the car door to the office.
“A report by occupational health said I’d have to lose six stone to do my job safely and I took some time off. I have to thank my work for giving me the opportunity to lose weight.”
Mark said he visited his GP every few months at Robin Lane Health and Wellbeing Centre in Pudsey where he “begged and begged for help but got nowhere whatsoever”.
He added: “I asked if I qualified for a gastric band but there was a two-year waiting list.
“Then I did a blood test for Mounjaro but I didn’t fit the criteria, even when the results showed I was in the lower end of type two diabetes.”
The final straw came during a trip to Crete in June when he could not walk from the hotel to the beach and had to resort to taxis. “When I came home, I said to my dad, ‘That’s it, I don’t care if I can afford it or not, I’m doing it’, and I ordered my first pen,” he said.
Mark immediately began taking weekly Mounjaro injections, starting with a dose of 2.5mg, costing £100 per month. “I was really shocked because it works and it worked virtually within four hours,” he said.
“For somebody in my situation, we get food noise, where you’ll be eating breakfast and you’re already thinking about what’s for dinner, but taking Mounjaro, that food noise just disappeared.”
After a week on the treatment, Mark had lost 9lb and had switched junk food for meal replacement shakes and high-protein meals like chicken and rice and egg salad. He is now losing a steady 2lb to 3lb per week, is approaching his ideal weight of 16 stone, and has resumed mountain biking with his son Joshua, 28.
He’s also enjoying more walks with his 54-year-old partner and playful times in the park with his six-year-old granddaughter Hailey. “So far, I’ve gone from a 6XL to a 3XL – now the goal is to be able to nip into Primark rather than travelling to specialist clothes shops for plus sizes,” he said.
Mark has upped his amount of Mounjaro, which now costs him £150 a month, and he notes that the price will increase to £180 at the end of the treatment. “It may not seem like a lot but as a civil servant on minimum wage for my level, I thought I couldn’t afford it,” Mark said.
“But once the effects kicked in and I was eating less, I realised I’m actually saving £250 per month.”
The doting grandfather, who also has a one-year-old grandson named Arthur, thinks the medication’s benefits overshadow its side effects, which have included constipation and diarrhoea. “If that’s what I have to do to prolong my life and stay healthy, that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make,” he said.
“People say it’s not a quick fix and it’s not – I am putting in the hard work at the gym three to four times per week – but the medication controls my appetite.
“Rather than food being my life, I now eat to live rather than live to eat.”
Mark’s weight loss journey is being chronicled on his TikTok account, Mark on Fitness @spurry05tiktok, where he has accumulated 3,500 followers and his videos have garnered up to 80,000 views.
Since weight reduction injections are just for diabetics, many people who sought them out from their doctor were flatly denied access.
Those who can afford it pay for it themselves, while those who cannot afford it suffer in silence and do not receive the injection.
In the long run, administering injections would undoubtedly save the NHS a significant amount of money.
The cause of a person’s weight growth is unknown. Medication, decreased mobility, genetic sickness, etc., could all be contributing factors. It has nothing to do with not taking care of oneself. It’s about receiving the necessary support, and those who are overweight aren’t receiving any.
Why not aid those who are overweight? The NHS helps those who smoke and those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Unfortunately, we live in a day and age where our food supply is endless. Go to the supermarket and there it is in abundance, and foods that are high in refined carbohydrates, sugar, or fat can make you feel more hungry more often.
The purpose of these foods is to trick your brain into believing that you need or desire more food.
Like alcohol, food is addictive, although it’s not entirely as black and white as that, but well done to this man. What an outstanding accomplishment which has probably saved his life.
Food addiction is no different to alcohol, drugs, smoking, shopping, gambling and even sex addiction, it’s all the same substance and all are classed like any other illness and should be covered by the NHS for help and support, and it should be helped with prevention medication as any other illness.
Before passing judgment on others, those who think that being overweight is a self-inflicted condition should examine themselves.
What about individuals who train out at the gym or go running so much that they develop an addiction to it and subsequently have an injury that requires a fractured bone, a knee replacement or both?
Shall we tell all those people that it was self-inflicted because they were addicted to exercise? Where does this argument end? The fact is, none of us are perfect and we all have things that we are addicted to, whatever it might be.
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