Woman has ‘no regrets’ after losing eight stone on Mounjaro despite needing organ removed
A woman vomiting up to 48 hours at a time needed her gallbladder removed while losing eight stone on Mounjaro.
When Leasha Donnelly, from Kent, found out that she was going to be a bridesmaid, she lost three stone between January and August 2024 before deciding to give the weight-loss jab a try.
With the combination of Mounjaro and a healthier diet, the 38-year-old lost eight stone over the next nine months.
Since coming off the jab in June 2025, Leasha has lost a further five pounds and now weighs 11 stone four pounds.
Advert
"Since March 2025 I started having these episodes when I'd have some alcohol and I'd spent the next day vomiting all day - even if only a small amount of alcohol," the scrum master based in Hythe said.
"Sometimes ambulances would be called, and the pain would go on for hours.
"After the third or fourth time they realised a pattern and the doctor did some further tests which confirmed gallstones.
"The flare ups are now a lot more severe and I'm having my gallbladder removed in August."
Leasha explained that doctors ‘didn't say it was a direct side effect of the jab, but of rapid weight loss’.
"Despite that, for all the pain and sickness and illness, if someone had said to me in the beginning all this bad stuff will happen, I still would have taken the jab," she added.
"I'm still not 100 percent after the surgery - I went back to work in September but I'm still really bruised around the incisions.
"I struggled a lot with pain in the beginning and underestimated how bad my mobility would be as well as the recovery.
"But I'm starting to feel a bit human again now - I can put a bra on and not struggle all day now.
"It's gradually getting back to normal."
Leasha told Sell Us Your Story that she has ‘no regrets’.
"If anything, when I first went on it, I was so amazed that if I had to be on it for the rest of my life then I was happy to do so," she said.
"It changed my life, my body confidence.
"It was only when talks of price increases and I started getting the gallstones side effects that I knew I had to learn to do life without them.
"I wear clothes that I haven't worn since I was a teenager.
"Even at home I wear clothes I usually wouldn't wear.
"So, when I do get the chance to go out it is reflective of me.
"I'm not scared of being noticed anymore.
"It's done wonders of how I feel about myself."
Prior to the jab, Leasha said she struggled with portion control and that she was ‘worried about the cravings coming back’.
"Those first few months off it were really difficult, but it was down to me to control that," she reflected.
"It's a case of better meal planning and if I do overindulge then it's about being extra careful.
"I make allowances for holidays and Christmas but over the last five months I've maintained."
Typical diet before Mounjaro:
Breakfast - egg and bacon sandwich or rounds of cheese on toast
Lunch - meal deal - pasta, crisps/chocolate, juice/fizz
Dinner - Kiev, chips, beans bread and butter
Snacks - chocolate, cakes, crisps
Typical diet now:
Breakfast - 1/2 Weetabix, semi skimmed milk and sprinkle of sugar
Lunch - chicken and light mayo on brown bread & fruit
Dinner - jacket potato, low fat cheese, beans
Snacks - fruit, snack/cereal bars, baked lentil crisps
Anish Vij