Crackdown urged by family of mum who died after receiving illegal ‘skinny jab’

The family of a woman who died after being injected with a black market weight-loss drug has called for a crackdown on unlicensed so-called “skinny jabs”.

The daughters of 53-year-old Karen McGonigal, from Salford, Greater Manchester, told ITV News the mum-of-three died in May – days after she was illegally administered a dose of semaglutide.

NHS England warns the drug, also known as Wegovy, can only be taken if it is prescribed by a specialist weight management service and is not recommended for those who are pregnant, breastfeeding or have certain health conditions.

Mrs McGonigal’s daughters, Abbie, 32, and Ffion McGonigal, 25, told ITV News their mother was “desperate” to lose weight and had been struggling with her mental health after the end of a long-term relationship.

She visited her GP and took tests to see if she was eligible for weight-loss injections, but was unable to get the medication on the NHS.

However, friends of Mrs McGonigal told her it was available to buy at a local beauty salon.

ITV News has reportedly seen text messages from a beautician offering the jabs for £20 each.

Ffion McGonigal told the broadcaster her mother visited the salon a number of times for what she was told were injections of Mounjaro, a weight-loss jab that is also used in the treatment of type two diabetes.

A beautician “stopped doing a woman’s nails” to take Mrs McGonigal into a back room where she was injected with a syringe, Ffion said.

“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.”

Mrs McGonigal initially lost weight, but became unwell with severe stomach pains and breathing problems four days after her final injection.

Ffion, who still lived with her mum, called an ambulance but after two days in intensive care, Mrs McGonigal’s children were told there was nothing more doctors could do to save her.

Mrs McGonigal’s family has since been told she was injected with semaglutide instead of tirzepatide (Mounjaro), a separate drug which requires a different dosage.

Although they are awaiting further test results, the family told ITV News they believe the unlicensed weight-loss jabs were to blame for Mrs McGonigal’s death.

“I think the people who are actually injecting people with this stuff – more needs to be done to them,” Abbie McGonigal said.

“There’s so many people doing it; there’s so many people selling it; these people are getting away with destroying people’s lives.

“If this interview saves another person or saves another person going through what we feel – then we’ve done enough.”

She warned those who may be considering taking the “cheaper option”, saying: “The outcome is devastating. It’s heartbreaking and it’s really, really not worth it.”

ITV News reports Greater Manchester Police has arrested one person on suspicion of manslaughter and another on suspicion of supplying a controlled substance.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the broadcaster the Government would “take every action we can to clamp down on the availability of these sorts of drugs on the black market”, adding the Government and public must “learn from this absolutely shocking case”.

He said: “My heart goes out to Karen’s family after just such a shocking and avoidable loss. We’re determined to make sure that we drive these dangerous criminals out of our country.

“My message to the public is that whilst weight loss jabs can be really helpful to tackle obesity and there’s lots of evidence to support it, people must seek medical advice from regulated medical providers before taking this medication, and if people are seeing it for sale on the black market, they should report it.”

The news follows a raid on an illegal laboratory manufacturing weight-loss jabs in Northampton in which authorities seized unlicensed medication worth £250,000, along with “sophisticated packaging and manufacturing equipment” and £20,000 in cash.

A spokesman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said it is “believed to be the largest single seizure of trafficked weight loss medicines ever recorded by a law enforcement agency worldwide”.