'I bought a weight loss jab over WhatsApp – one week later I nearly died'

A mum-of-three “nearly died” after she took a fake weight loss jab. Jodi Jones bought four of the jabs at £20 each from a beautician she met over WhatsApp.

She says she was recommended weight loss jabs by her doctor as she looked to drop from a size 14 to a size 10. But after waiting “months” on the NHS, she turned to a friend who had also bought the so-called “skinny jabs” from the beautician.

Speaking on Channel 5’s Weight Loss Scams: Don't Get Caught Out, Jodie from Eryrys in Denbighshire, said: “After speaking to a friend who was on it at the time, she was doing amazing on it, she was doing really well.”

Jodi says her friend passed her the woman’s number, and after she reached out via WhatsApp, she was sent a “copy and paste leaflet” about what to expect. Jodi says the pre-loaded syringes arrived at her home in a “padded envelope”.

Nonetheless she took the first jab. “About six hours later I felt quite nauseated, just a bit sickly,” she explained.

“And then the next day I wasn’t really hungry all day, I thought it was brilliant at the time. I just felt so full, like my stomach felt like I’d just drunk a huge McDonald’s milkshake or something.”

Jodi says she lost half a stone in the first week. She took the second injection a week later and found herself “vomiting all night”.

She continued: “Twenty four hours later I wasn’t very well at all. I was in and out of consciousness, vomiting blood, it was just bile all the time because I wasn’t getting anything in me at all.”

Jodi says she was “dizzy” and “couldn’t stay awake” which led her to call her eldest daughter. She was subsequently rushed to Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

After 48 hours without food or water, Jodi was given an IV to “stave off disaster”. She said: “They said I was clinically dehydrated, quite severely.

“They said without those fluids, without the children looking after me and getting me to the hospital, I would have deteriorated quite badly.”

She believes it could have been bad enough to be a “risk to her life”. Doctors later confirmed they think Jodi took a fake weight loss jab instead of the semaglutide she believed she'd ordered.

She explained her mother contacted the beautician who was “very dismissive” and wouldn’t confirm which pharmacy they were originally bought from. Experts believe this is a common warning sign of a potential scam.

Jodi now wants others to avoid falling into the trap she did. She encourages people to speak to their GP about weight loss jabs.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain in 2024, she said: “Go to a GP and do it properly through a dietician. If it's something you're really interested in, do not do it through a beautician.

"After my experience, I couldn't even risk it. Why pay for it when you can go through the NHS if you need it that badly? There are some women out there using it who don't even look like they need it. Don't. It's just really not worth it."

Now, almost two years on, Jodi continues to recover. She is however still struggling with some health issues relating to the fake jabs.