Alisha Trafford initially celebrated the weight loss she achieved with the help of Mounjaro, but her joy turned to regret after she discovered the medication had severely affected her health.

The 25-year-old from Hull, East Yorkshire, started using the weight-loss injections in February to aid her slimming efforts and manage her polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) symptoms.

However, by May, just three months into her treatment, Trafford was diagnosed with pancreatitis. This condition, which involves the inflammation of the pancreas—a crucial organ responsible for digestion and hormone regulation—can develop rapidly.

“The doctors could only attribute the pancreatitis to Mounjaro,” Trafford stated.

“I was so ill that I couldn’t even lift my head or speak. All I could do was sleep,” she recounted.

Trafford described the experience as excruciatingly painful, leaving her body utterly drained. During her hospital stay, she lost two stone because she was unable to eat.

‘The consultant was adamant in the end that it was Mounjaro.’

It is possible to recover from pancreatitis, but tragically for Ms Trafford she suffered a rare complication—pancreatic necrosis. 

Alisha Trafford, 25, was left with a necrotic pancreas—doctors said it was caused by Mounjaro

This occurs when the pancreas loses its blood supply, causing some of the tiny 100g organ to die. 

The presence of dead tissue can lead to the pancreas becoming infected, which can trigger sepsis and organ failure, leading to death in some cases. 

It was when Ms Trafford started using her second pen that she started experiencing excruciating pain that led to her first hopitalisation in May.

She said: ‘I’d been struggling with some abdominal pain for a while, but I didn’t really think much of it, I dismissed it.

‘Then one day the pain got really, really intense.

‘I asked my manager to go home from work and that’s when it all really started to go downhill.

‘Within six hours of me being home I rang for an ambulance, I was vomiting continuously.

‘The pain was getting more intense and it felt quite similar to what I imagine a heart attack would feel like.

Ms Trafford began experiencing excruciating side effects when on her second pen 

‘I got to the hospital and I was diagnosed with pancreatitis.’

Ms Trafford was treated with fluids and painkillers and was discharged from hospital after a week-long stay, but after 48 hours she was readmitted and diagnosed with pancreatic necrosis.

After multiple hospital admission between May and August, Ms Trafford claims her consultant was stunned she was well enough to even talk.

She said: ‘I don’t think I was realise how poorly I actually was until I went to see the consultant.

‘He couldn’t actually quite believe I was sitting there and talking.

‘He said he’d never seen so many admissions for pancreatitis so closely together like this and he was surprised how stable I was.

‘He said the only reason I wasn’t in a medically induced coma was because of my age, if I’d been any older then it would have been a different story.’

Ms Trafford was hospitalised with pancreatitis again on December 6th and says she will remain at risk of pancreatic issues for the rest of her life.

Mounjaro has previously been linked to pancreatitis  

She said: ‘My life has completely been put on hold.

I’ve been told the pancreatitis is probably going to come back and I’ll be at risk of that for the rest of my life now.’

Ms Trafford says she has now had to ‘put her life on hold’ and if she knew what the side effects would be, then she never would have touched it in the first place.   

She paid £135 to an online pharmacy for each prefilled injection pen, Ms Trafford saw fast results, and within three months had lost three-and-a-half stone on the ‘magic’ drug.

Ms Trafford said: ‘My weight has always been an issue since I was a teenager.

‘I’ve tried different things to lose weight but it’s never really been as successful as Mounjaro was.

‘Mounjaro was also helping my PCOS symptoms and it was just making my life better. It was probably the best thing I ever did at the time because everything started to change.

‘It was quite nice really seeing everything start to clear up and feeling like you had a magic drug, it was pretty much magical.’

But with the benefit of hindsight, Ms Trafford says she regrets ever taking the jab – and never would have ordered her first one if she knew this would be the outcome.

‘I was that person that thought it [being hospitalised] wouldn’t happen to me.

‘I have chronic pancreatitis and my pancreas is still healing, all because I wanted to make better changes and give myself a second chance in life.

‘It’s heartbreaking because I saw taking Mounjaro as a way my life was going to change for the better.

‘I was pretty much independent, I was healthy, I was getting on with my life, making plans for my future, now I’m just at risk constantly.

‘If I knew this was what my life was going to be like then I never would have taken it.’

Now working towards losing weight naturally, Ms Trafford is warning people who take Mounjaro to seek medical attention if they start to feel unwell.

Ms Trafford said: ‘Just be careful. Don’t ignore any pain and something doesn’t feel right, get it checked.

‘Don’t ignore it, it’s not worth ignoring if something doesn’t feel right, get it seen to.’

A spokesperson for Lilly, who manufacture Mounjaro, said: ‘Patient safety is Lilly’s top priority.

‘We take reports regarding patient safety seriously and actively monitor, evaluate, and report safety information for all our medicines.

‘The Mounjaro (tirzepatide) Patient Information Leaflet warns that inflamed pancreas (acute pancreatitis) is an uncommon side effect (which may affect up to 1 in 100 people).

‘It also advises patients to talk to their doctor or other healthcare professional before using Mounjaro if they have ever had pancreatitis.

‘We encourage patients to consult their doctor or other healthcare professional regarding any side effects they may be experiencing and to ensure that they are getting genuine Lilly medicine.’

Studies have previously suggested there may be a link between Mounjaro and an increased risk of pancreatitis. 

However, there isn’t enough evidence yet to prove who is at increased risk of this side effect and why the drug could trigger it.

One theory is that it increases levels of certain pancreatic enzymes in the blood. Problems with these enzymes may then cause them to try to digest the pancreas itself, triggering pancreatitis.

Known officially as tirzepatide, the weekly drug has been hailed a ‘game-changing’ treatment.

Around 2.5million Britons are thought to be on weight loss injections such as Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy. 

They are classed as GLP-1 agonists, and work by mimicking a hormone found naturally in the body.

Dubbed the ‘King Kong’ of weight loss drugs, Mounjaro works by signalling the body to produce more insulin when needed, reducing the amount of glucose produced by the liver and slowing down digestion. 

Mounjaro will be offered to around 220,000 people over the next three years under new NHS prescribing rules.

Previously the potent drug, which helps patients shed up to a fifth of their body weight in a year, was available privately and at a small number of specialist NHS weight loss clinics.