A mother-of-three who was desperate to lose weight but couldn’t afford licensed diet drugs has told how she feared she was going to die after suffering a reaction to black market jabs.
Viccy Gibson paid just £70 for a month’s supply of what she was told was semaglutide – the same ingredient used in NHS-approved Ozempic.
The 46-year-old sourced the cut-price pens through a friend who had links to a beauty salon in her home town of Sunderland.
However, she fell ill within minutes of administering a first low 2.5mg dose – and was later rushed to hospital by ambulance amid fears her organs were shutting down.
Ms Gibson recounted her traumatic experience to the Daily Mail in a bid to warn others about the perils of bogus slimming injections being peddled online and sold in beauty salons.
Her ordeal comes after the family of a mother who died just days after being injected with a black market weight loss injection told of their torment for the first time.
Karen McGonigal, 53, died after allegedly paying £20 for an illegal dose of semaglutide from a local beauty salon in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Ms Gibson, a carer, said: ‘I got the jab through a friend of a friend. She was getting hers from a salon, but I’ve no idea where they were importing them from.
Viccy Gibson, 46, from Sunderland said she thought she was going to die after taking black market weight loss drugs
‘It was supposed to be semaglutide – £70 for a vial that would last a month. It seemed like a bargain but in hindsight, I should have known by the price that something wasn’t right.
‘Five minutes after injecting it, the nausea started and it just got worse and worse. My mouth was watering, I was dizzy, my head was pounding – it was horrendous.
‘Within five hours, I was crippled. I was doubled over. My body was retching so much, my stomach was pulsating.
‘The pain was absolutely unreal – to the point where I honestly felt like I was dying.
‘I had to ring myself an ambulance because I couldn’t move.’
Mrs Gibson, who was unable to vomit because of a previous stomach operation, was admitted to Sunderland Royal Hospital where she was hooked up to an intravenous drip and given pain relief.
She said: ‘The doctors were worried that my body was shutting down.
‘The pain was worse than giving birth – I’d rather go through labour again than have those cramps.
‘The doctors told me that another girl who’d taken the same thing had suffered organ failure.’
Mrs Gibson was discharged 48 hours later but told how she felt severely unwell for a fortnight.
‘I was still nauseous. The dizziness, the hot and cold sweat, the stomach cramps. It felt like it was never going to end.’
More than 1.5 million people are on weight-loss drugs in the UK. Some obtain the hunger-busting drugs through the NHS but most are reliant on private prescriptions issued by specialised medical professionals after a consultation.
However, their high cost – from around £150 to £300 per month – has led to a black-market boom.
Dealers advertise ‘miracle pens’ on TikTok and encrypted apps – often claiming they contain the same medication used by celebrities.
One social media profile found within seconds by the Daily Mail pointed would-be customers to a professional-looking website offering semaglutide and the experimental drug retatrutide, which is yet to be approved in the UK.
The website purported to sell the slimming injections solely for ‘research purposes’, stating its wares are ‘strictly for laboratory research use only’.
One job advert posted online was selling the experimental drug retatrutide, which is yet to be approved in the UK
Another post advertised semaglutide – the same ingredient used in NHS-approved Ozempic
‘They are not intended for human or veterinary consumption under any circumstances’, it added.
Another profile on TikTok advertises ‘bulk semaglutide and Mounjaro from £180 a box’. A third profile posted: ‘Be the first to get your hands on retatrutide!
‘PM me for information or Whatsapp’.
Mrs Gibson admitted she had been ‘stupid’ and ‘lazy’ by purchasing the drug from an unregulated source.
She added: ‘I know I had a lucky escape. I had the lowest dose, which I think saved me.
‘If I’d taken more, I don’t know if I’d be here.
‘I tell everyone now, your health isn’t worth it. Your life isn’t worth saving a few quid on a cheap jab. People think it won’t happen to them, but it does.
‘You don’t know what’s in those injections – it could be anything. You’re literally poisoning yourself.
‘I’ll never touch anything like that again. I’ve joined a gym and I’m doing things properly now.’
Police are investigating a number of deaths linked to Britain’s growing fake fat-jab epidemic.
One person has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the death of Mrs McGonigal in May, another on suspicion of supplying a controlled substance.
Her devastated daughters Ffion and Abbie this week told how their mother had been struggling with her mental health and was ‘desperate’ to lose weight.
Viccy, pictured in her home city of Sunderland, said she had a ‘lucky escape’ as she was only given the lowest dose of the drug
Karen McGonigal, 53, died after allegedly paying £20 for an illegal dose of semaglutide from a beauty salon in Salford
Mrs McGonigal had visited her GP to see if she would be eligible for Mounjaro but did not meet strict eligibility criteria.
She was then allegedly sent messages from a beautician offering the jabs for £20 each.
Youngest daughter Ffion, 25, said the salon worker took Mrs McGonigal into a back room where she was injected with a syringe.
‘No preparation, no cleaning, nothing. She’d give it to my mum, my mum would pay her and she’d be out in three minutes,’ she said.
Mrs McGonigal began to lose weight but four days after her last injection she collapsed.
The family has since been told she was not injected with tirzepatide, the drug known by the brand name Mounjaro.
Instead she was administered semaglutide – a different weight loss medication, requiring a different dosage.
Her daughters are awaiting further test results, but they believe the unregulated weight-loss jabs were to blame for their mother’s death.
In the UK, anyone convicted of selling unlicensed prescription-only medicines faces up to two years in prison and an unlimited fine.
Northumbria Police are continuing to investigate the death of another woman from Sunderland who had taken a suspected unauthorised weight-loss drug.
The unnamed woman, in her 50s, died in August last year and is believed to be the first known death in the UK connected to an unlicensed slimming injection.
Two women were arrested in connection with the death.
Viccy pictured with her grandson Jai at his christening on October 31
In May, three women were arrested after a woman fell seriously ill after using a weight loss jab allegedly sourced from a North Yorkshire salon.
Police said the woman from Selby had been treated in intensive care for suspected internal injuries.
Two women, aged 32 and 37, were arrested on suspicion of causing or administering a poison. A 58-year-old woman was held on suspicion of supplying a prescription-only medicine.
All three women, also from Selby, were released on bail.
Freedom of Information figures show that more than 18,300 illegal weight-loss and diabetes drugs were seized at UK borders in the year to June.
Among them were smugglers stopped at Heathrow Airport with fake Mounjaro pens strapped to their bodies in a bid to sneak them past customs officers.
Earlier this month, police uncovered £250,000 worth of counterfeit weight-loss pens in what is believed to be the world’s biggest-ever seizure.
A warehouse on the outskirts of Northampton was being used to manufacture, package and distribute unlicensed tirzepatide and retatrutide pens.
Officers seized more than 2,000 pens along with tens of thousands of empty cartridges waiting to be filled.
In a separate raid in August, police seizing £32,000 worth of fake pens from a distribution centre in Lancashire.
Christina Parfitt, 40, remains wanted by City of London Police over the illegal sale of the medicines at ‘significantly reduced prices’.
Tests on the seized pens revealed doses up to four times stronger than the legal prescription.
Medicines watchdog the MHRA says it has seized over 1,200 illegal slimming jabs in the past two years, taken down 128 websites and deleted 250 social-media adverts – though the figures are likely to just scratch the surface.
Viccy was taken to hospital in an ambulance after her ‘body started to shut down’ when she took the drugs
While genuine pens come in well-designed packaging with clear printing and unique serial numbers, counterfeit products are often cheaply made, with spelling errors, blurred logos and flimsy materials.
Pharmacist Jason Murphy, of online pharmacy Chemist4U, told the Daily Mail: ‘Black-market versions are incredibly risky.
‘You don’t know what drugs are in them, if they’ve been properly stored, or even if they contain the right active ingredients.
‘Using completely counterfeited medications can put you at unnecessary risk and cause serious harm.
‘If you’re thinking about using weight-loss injections to reach a healthy weight, the most important thing to do is to source them from a trustworthy and regulated provider.
‘If it seems too easy to get hold of, or if it’s offered without a consultation and prescription, walk away.
‘Always check how the site you are buying from is regulated and only use trusted, traceable sources. It’s the best way to stay safe and make sure your treatment works.’
The MHRA warned: ‘Sourcing medicines from illegal suppliers significantly increases the risk of getting a product which is either falsified or not authorised for use in the UK.’
‘This could expose patients to incorrect dosages, or dangerous or illegal ingredients that can have serious health consequences.’