I’m an A&E nurse and refused skinny jabs because of the side effects – now people are shocked by the even ‘bigger risk’ I took to lose 8st

An NHS nurse who couldn’t lose weight through dieting has revealed how she lost 8st without resorting to skinny jabs such as Mounjaro. 

With a BMI of almost 50, at 18st and a size 28, Rhianna Berry, 26, from Lincolnshire, knew she wouldn’t be able to conceive with her long term partner, she was struggling to work, and felt she was eating herself into an early grave.

Working in A&E Rhianna was concerned by reports of people suffering complications from the injections, ranging from side effects such as nausea and vomiting to more serious side-effects including loss of muscle and bone density. 

But her route to losing 8st has still ‘shocked’ people who think she took a huge ‘risk’ to achieve her goal. 

In the summer of 2022, Rhianna, then 24, flew to Turkey for bariatric surgery to finally deal with her weight. Having been on a constant stream of diets and appetite suppressant pills since she was 15, she felt it was her only hope.

‘I was only 24 with so much to live for – an amazing partner, family and job – yet I was eating myself into an early grave,’ she said. 

‘I had constant knee and back pain, and crucially I knew that our chances of having the family we always wanted was almost impossible at my weight.’

There were also humiliating incidents to contend with because of her size.  

In January 2022, she went to Alton Towers with her partner Louis and her team for a special ‘Blue Light Rewards’ day. 

What was supposed to be a fun – and free – event for her and her team to reward them for their work on the frontline was her idea of hell.

Rhianna said: ‘I was more than 18st and morbidly obese, so the idea of trying to fit into a rollercoaster while being watched by all my colleagues was simply awful.’

Rhianna climbed into the seat for the ‘Air’ rollercoaster next to Louis, but, as she’d feared, the safety bars wouldn’t click into position because of her huge thighs and tummy.

‘Everyone else was waiting while three attendants and Louis all tried to push it down, me desperately trying to suck in, but nothing worked,’ she said. 

‘I then had the walk of shame past everyone on the rollercoaster and in the queue, hiding around the corner to sob my eyes out at the humiliation.

‘I had to pull myself together before they all got off and saw me again, joking: ‘Well, I was obviously too fat for that one!’ as a way of deflecting the issue, taking the sting out of what everyone was thinking. 

‘As always I turned myself into a joke before anyone else could.’

Having already spoken to her GP about help, she had been offered a referral on the NHS pathway, but was told surgery wouldn’t be a possibility for at least three years – by which time Rhianna feared she might be dead.

‘I just knew diets didn’t work for me, and I’d paid for years of counselling to make sure I was mentally prepared, so gastric surgery would be the last piece in the puzzle – but UK clinics were charging in excess of £12,000 for the surgery, money we simply didn’t have,’ she said.

But having completed a nursing degree and understanding the importance of solid data to make important medical decisions, Rhianna decided to start researching foreign clinics.

‘There was so much stigma around going abroad for gastric surgery, but the more I looked into it, the more I realised how there were real risks with UK clinics too – almost 40 recorded deaths,’ she said.

Spending weekends and evenings analysing dozens of clinics, she says the data she found on one in Turkey called Get Slim made it a clear winner.

‘The stats showed a tiny number of complications, the number of safeguards in place was so rigorous, and I knew what to look for, what to ask before I signed up,’ she said. ‘The surgery would only cost me £2,800 including flights, so I’d be saving the NHS thousands, an institution I care deeply about.

‘If nothing else, I’d enjoy the next three years of my life rather than being in constant pain, I’d save the NHS loads more in medication and consultation time because of health issues relating to my weight. It was a no-brainer.’

But when she told Louis and other friends and family her plan, she says invariably she was met with concerns. But explaining that with her medical background she knew exactly what she was doing, she says they eventually came around to the idea.

‘I even told them I was taking the time off work as unpaid holiday – it wouldn’t be fair to do anything else,’ she said.

On June 12 that year, she and Louis flew Turkey and were then transferred to the Gozde Hospital in Kusadasi where she underwent her gastric sleeve surgery. 

Because she had been taking the acid reflux medication Omeprazole for nine years, doctors quickly realised she also had a hernia, so would need that fixing too. Opting for an operation called a fundoplasty, they would use part of her removed stomach to repair the hernia.

‘I knew straight away I was in safe hands,’ she said. ‘There was a translator present at all times, but almost all the staff spoke perfect English anyway. All my vital stats were accurately the regularly monitored before, during and after the surgery, I had blanket stitching and drink contrast to confirm no gastric leaks, it was so rigorous. 

‘The only issue I had during my whole stay was getting stuck in a lift.’

Back at work two weeks later, Rhianna was upfront with all her colleagues about her procedure, wanting them to understand why she’d been away, and why – she hoped – she was going to lose weight rapidly in the coming weeks.

‘I’d battled with my weight all my life, but working on the wards during Covid, with all the PPE, seeing people die, and worrying I’d bring home this horrific virus to my family, the stress caused my weight to spiral up from around 14 to 18st,’ she said.

‘A lot of these people I worked with knew me inside out, we’d been through so much together, and they knew how much I’d suffered since the pandemic. I owed it to them to tell them, and they were so happy for me.’

‘They’d seen how my weight had started to impact on my job, how I’d struggled to push beds around, how I was squashed in cubicles or ambulances with trolleys, how exhausted I was.’

‘It had become farcical when I was handing out advice to patients to lose weight when I was literally the elephant in the room.’

In her first week post-surgery, Rhianna lost 18lbs – by the October she’d lost 52lbs, or 3.5st. Moving from a liquid-only diet, to pureed food, she says she painstakingly hit her protein quotient, then moved onto small, regular meals.

‘I stuck to my dietician’s plan religiously for six months, knowing how unhealthy I’d been before. This was my chance. I’d gone from eating massive takeaways before of pizza, garlic bread and cookies which hardly touched the sides, to a tiny portion of chicken breast and some peppers leaving me feeling stuffed.’

Now just 10st and a size 8, Rhianna says she feels like she’s been reborn. Her weight loss even inspired Louis to drop down from 18st to 13.5st with dietary and exercise changes.

‘Louis proposed to me on 7th October, and we’re planning on getting married in 2026 before trying to have a family. I had a BMI of almost 50 before, now that’s in the low 20s, I haven’t got any debt, I’ve saved the NHS a fortune.’

‘Having seen the news last week about that other nurse who died from complications after using skinny jabs, and all the other horror stories around people using those without the correct support, it’s simply madness that bariatric surgery gets such a bad press. 

‘People I tell now about my journey are still in shock that I would’ve taken this “risk”, yet when you read celebrities crowing about how much weight they’ve lost using Ozempic or one of the other weight loss jabs – despite not being obese or being diabetic, so evidently without a trained clinician’s support – it makes me so cross.’

‘The message is to do your research. I went into this after months of crunching data, and knew I was doing the right thing. Not only do I not regret a thing, this was the best choice I’ve ever made.’