A civil servant left “crying on his knees” having failed to qualify for weight loss jabs on the NHS has shed nine stone and saved thousands of pounds after deciding to go private. Grandfather of two Mark Spurr, 53, has so far dropped from 30st to 21st and trimmed eight inches off his waist since starting weekly Mounjaro injections eight months ago.
The security officer, from Morley, West Yorkshire, said he had begged his GP for the NHS treatment in June after realising he could no longer fit into the stab-proof vest he is required to wear for his work at an immigration centre in Leeds and could not manage the walk from the car park.
Despite being off the body-mass index chart with a score of 57, he was told he did not meet the NHS criteria, which include having “the highest clinical needs” with a BMI of over 35 and at least one weight-related illness. Determined to save his job – and his life – Mark decided to buy the treatment privately online with Cloud Pharmacy, starting from £100 per month.
Now he has not only lost weight, but claims he is £2,000 better off – saving the £400 per month he used to spend on snacks and takeaways – thanks to the drug which tricks the brain into feeling full. “Mounjaro’s changed my life and it might have even saved my life,” Mark said.
“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, who was slim during childhood, began 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 mother 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 eat a sausage, spam and egg sandwich followed by a bacon roll, a pastry and a coffee for breakfast.
Lunch was a sandwich, pasty, bun and cake while dinner was 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 on a trip to Crete in June when he was unable to walk from the hotel to the beach and had to take taxis everywhere. “When I came home, I said to my dad, ‘that’s it, I don’t care if I can afford it or no, I’m doing it’, and I ordered my first pen,” he said.
Mark immediately began taking weekly Mounjaro injections, beginning on 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 seven days on the treatment, Mark had lost 9lb and had swapped 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 closing in on his ideal weight of 16st and can go mountain biking again with his son Joshua, 28.
He is also going on more walks with his partner, 54, and spending time running around 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 moved to a higher dose of Mounjaro, costing £150 per month, and says the price rises to £180 at the end of the course.
“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 grandfather, who also has a one-year-old grandson, Arthur, said the benefits outweigh the side-effects, based on his experience, which have been 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 is documenting his weight loss on his TikTok page, Mark on Fitness @spurry05tiktok, which has 3,500 followers and viral videos with up to 80,000 views. To help support the costs of his treatment and possible skin removal surgery, he has launched a GoFundMe page, which has so far raised £25 of his £5,000 target.
“I’d like to thank everybody who has supported me so far, it really keeps me going,” he said.
Around a quarter of a million people living with obesity will be offered Mounjaro over the next three years, according to final draft guidance from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence. It recommends the treatment for people with a body-mass index of more than 35 and at least one weight-related illness.
The NHS was contacted for further comment by the Press Association.