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 bought from a seller.
Now, two years on, the mum from Carterton, Oxon, wants to warn others about the dangers of “skinny jabs”;;.
She tells : “I’d never go anywhere near . Being skinny isn’t worth dying for.”;;
bought an £150 Ozempic pen through an online pharmacy site three years ago after she put on two stone following the breakdown of her .
“I’d always been a size 8-10 but the had been slowly creeping on as I turned to comfort ,”;; 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 .”;;
Michelle said much of the instructions were in a foreign language but it said to inject once a week.
“The jabs really worked – ,”;; she recalls.
“Within three months I’d , 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 in the 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 . 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 , 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! 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 , it’s all about making sensible decisions and regularly going to 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.”;;
