Co Down man told he’d be ‘lucky to see 40’ - praises plans to introduce weight loss injections through NI Health Service
It's part of plans for the new Regional Obesity Management Service.
A man who lost 9 stone using weight loss injections is welcoming news they'll be available through Northern Ireland's health service.
Weight loss jabs becoming available through the health service are part of plans for the new Regional Obesity Management Service.
The first phase of the new service is scheduled to start early next year, and the Department of Health has said it will focus on the development of a community-based service where patients will have access to lifestyle support as well as obesity medication, if clinically appropriate.
Following the news announced on Wednesday, a County Down man has praised how well weight loss injections worked for him.
Marc McKee has been using them since last August, after an alarming doctor appointment gave him a wake-up call.
After years of attempting different diets, he decided to try wight loss injections through an online pharmacy.
The Millisle man spoke to CoolFM/Downtown news: “I was 34 and he told me that I would be lucky to see 40. In terms of the damage I was doing to my body, I had a lot of fat around my visceral organs. So, I had a bit of a wake-up call at that point.”
He told us his relationship food was a mental problem, rather than a hunger problem: “That craving for food comes from my head, not my stomach. To explain it to people, if you’re sitting at night thinking I’d love a chocolate bar… that’s your head not your stomach.”
“That food noise was the thing that was causing me to have take-outs and things like that. So that being silenced is deafening almost, because you just don’t think about food.”
However, Marc has faced criticism for going on the medication: “I have been called a cheater. It is hard to lose weight. It’s a mental illness essentially, for me it is anyway… That criticism that’s there... we all need to be a lot kinder to each other and understand that this is prescription medication and you wouldn’t call someone on blood pressure mediation a cheater.”
Since starting the weight loss injections back in August, Marc has lost 9 stone and has come of his blood pressure medication. He said he is feeling better than ever.