Leasha Donnelly says she has no regrets about losing her gallbladder after shedding more than 100 pounds on the GLP-1 drug Mounjaro.
Donnelly, 38, from Kent, UK, weighed roughly 300 pounds at her heaviest, fueling a routine of fast food, chips, and chocolate snacks that she turned to for comfort. She told Sell Us Your Story that her mental and physical health were both suffering, with portion control completely out of reach. “I wasn’t in a great space mentally and physically – food was my comfort and I had no control over portion sizes,” she said. “Lots of chocolate, crisps, takeaways. It was easier.”
The turning point came in summer 2023, when a friend asked her to be a bridesmaid at a Cyprus wedding scheduled for September 2024. Donnelly began calorie counting and keto dieting that January, dropping 42 pounds on her own by August 2024. “I was trying to lose weight – calorie counting and doing keto dieting,” she explained. “I only started that in January 2024 and lost three stone between then and August. That’s when I decided I needed some extra help.”
She started Mounjaro injections that month, pairing the medication with a healthier diet. The results were dramatic: Donnelly shed over eight stone total, and even after stopping the injections in June 2025, she lost another five pounds. But the rapid transformation carried a steep physical cost.
Beginning in March 2025, Donnelly started experiencing violent episodes of vomiting that could last up to 48 hours, sometimes triggered by even small amounts of alcohol. “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,” she recounted. “Sometimes ambulances would be called, and the pain would go on for hours.”
After the third or fourth emergency visit, medical staff spotted the pattern and ran further tests. In May 2026, Donnelly was diagnosed with gallstones, a condition her doctors linked to the speed of her weight loss rather than the drug itself. She noted that while professionals “didn’t say it was a direct side effect of the jab,” they attributed the complication to her rapid shedding of pounds. Her gallbladder was removed in August.
Despite the organ loss and months of debilitating pain, Donnelly remains firmly committed to the transformation she achieved. “I wear clothes that I haven’t worn since I was a teenager,” she shared. “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.”
She continued: “I’m not scared of being noticed anymore. It’s done wonders of how I feel about myself.”
Donnelly’s story joins a growing wave of patient accounts highlighting both the dramatic efficacy and complex trade-offs of GLP-1 medications, which have surged in popularity for weight management even as users and clinicians grapple with emerging side effects.