A mother-of-three from Liverpool has revealed how a Christmas present from her father sparked an extraordinary 13-stone weight loss transformation, after she asked him for a weight loss injection.
A Christmas Request That Changed Everything
In late 2024, when 35-year-old Emilly Murray from Aintree told her father, Paul, 55, that she wanted the weight loss medication Mounjaro for Christmas, she had no idea it would mark the beginning of a new life. At her heaviest, Ms Murray weighed 22 stone 1.5lbs (309.5lbs) and wore a size 30, after a lifelong struggle with binge eating disorder.
She described mindlessly consuming around 5,000 calories daily, turning to Chinese takeaways, pizza, chocolates, and Haribo sweets for comfort. "I used food as a crutch," she said. "If I was happy, sad, or depressed, the answer was always to eat." Despite trying various diets, the weight always returned, leading to her decisive Christmas request.
The 'Switch' That Flicked: Life on Mounjaro
After her father sent her £105 to order the medication online, Ms Murray administered her first injection on 30 December 2024. She describes it as the day her "life-changing journey" began. The medication, known officially as tirzepatide, works by controlling hormones responsible for appetite and satiety.
"I took my first dose and it was like a switch flicked in my head," she explained. "I didn't wake up in the morning wondering what I could eat any more. That just vanished. I felt like I had so much space in my head for everything else."
The results were dramatic. She has since slimmed down to 9 stone 2lbs (128lbs) and now comfortably fits into a size six. In total, she has lost almost 13 stone (182lbs), with six stone of that lost while using Mounjaro. She is now the slimmest she can remember being since childhood.
A New Life as a Mum and Future Plans
The transformation has had a profound impact on her family life with her three children—Esme, 12, Ellie, six, and Joseph, four. "I'm a better mum for my kids," Ms Murray said. "I can play with them in the play centre and go down the slides. It's changed not just my life but my whole family's life."
While she experienced some side effects like constipation and diarrhoea, she managed them by adjusting her diet. Although the jabs cost her around £1,500 over a year, she notes this is less than her previous annual spend on snacks and takeaways.
Ms Murray is now preparing to taper off the medication as she enters a maintenance phase. She also has plans for excess skin removal surgery in May in Lithuania, costing approximately £12,000. This Christmas, she looks forward to a quiet celebration with her partner, Oliver, 30, and her children, in a "completely different headspace" from the year before.
Reflecting on her journey from being cruelly nicknamed "the whale" at school to her current health, she added: "I pinch myself because I can't believe how this year has gone for me. Thanks for the present, Dad."
The Wider Picture of Weight Loss Jabs in the UK
Ms Murray's story coincides with a significant shift in the availability of such treatments. Mounjaro, colloquially dubbed the 'King Kong' of weight loss drugs, is a GLP-1 agonist that mimics natural hormones. It helps patients shed up to a fifth of their body weight in a year by increasing insulin production, reducing liver glucose, and slowing digestion.
Previously available only privately or at specialist NHS clinics, new prescribing rules mean Mounjaro will be offered to around 220,000 people on the NHS over the next three years. An estimated 2.5 million Britons are now thought to be using weight loss injections like Mounjaro, Ozempic, and Wegovy.
