A woman from Burnham who takes weight loss medication has called the government 'naïve' for suggesting weight-loss jabs would help unemployed people return to the workplace.

Cheri Ferguson, 42, started taking the weight loss drug Ozempic last March before switching to Mounjaro this spring.

And despite successfully losing 10 stone from the treatments, she has disputed suggestions by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting that the jab could ease pressure on the NHS and boost the economy by cutting sick days, arguing that it would "not be enough" to encourage people back to work. 

A study by Health Innovation Manchester and pharmaceutical firm Lilly was commissioned this week to examine anti-obesity treatment Mounjaro's "real world effectiveness" on weight loss, diabetes prevention and impact on NHS use.

But the 42-year-old, who works as a contract administrator in Burnham, said: "There are always going to be a certain amount of people that you control this medication with that have no intention of getting a job once they've used (it) and I think that's another tough conversation that needs to be had.

"I don't think we've got X amount of unemployed people and (that if) we give them Mounjaro and they start losing weight, that's it, they're all suddenly going to be in employment.

"I don't think that's the case at all. And I think (it's) very naïve to think that that is the case."

Mounjaro, which is made by Lilly, is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist, a family of medications that help manage blood sugar and are used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Other GLP-1 agonists include semaglutide – sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus.

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Cheri fears the new weight-loss jabs will be limited to unemployed people, which she feels is not fair for those who have had to seek private healthcare and pay for their own weight-loss medication.

“There are people that will want to take this drug and they will have absolutely no desire to be in the workforce and I think that’s another situation entirely,” she explained.

“So you do get quite a lot of people that think, ‘Well, hang on a second. I funded this. I have to work. Why should you get it free if you’re unemployed?’.

“I find it incredibly frustrating. I think I would wonder how they would do it if it was just people that are unemployed. How would you police that?

“You’ll have people, like myself when I started this medication, I was on a lower income, it was a struggle for me to pay for it every month. So does that mean I should now quit my job so that I’ve got better access to the medication?”

The Burnham native, who lives with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), said she has been “suffering with my weight since I was a child” having tried multiple weight-loss techniques and dealing with yo-yo dieting and binge eating.

She said she felt “at a loss” with her weight and sought advice from her GP who suggested she take Ozempic because she was “an ideal candidate because I had pre-type two diabetes” and went from weighing 22 stone and eight pounds in 2023 to 12 stone.

Ms Ferguson said losing weight from taking Ozempic and then Mounjaro has prompted her to be an “advocate” for weight-loss drugs and has documented her weight loss journey to her 10,000 followers on TikTok.