Woman, 41, reveals she lost 10 stone in just one year while taking weight-loss jabs – and still regularly ate McDonald’s Happy Meals

A woman has revealed how she dropped 10st in just one year while on the NHS prescribed Wegovy jab – despite still regularly eating McDonald’s Happy Meals. 

Stacie Hird, 41, began gaining weight after having her first child, now 16, when she was 24.

The mother-of-two said the weight gain began during the pandemic when she became less active and comfort ate snacks including crisps and chocolate, as well as takeaways. 

At her heaviest, Stacie, a customer service manager from Wakefield, west Yorkshire, weighed 18st 10lb, and was a size 22. 

However, she always ruled out weight-loss injections because she was under the assumption that she could not afford them privately. That was, until she realised that she qualified for them on the NHS. 

Due to Stacie’s asthma and anxiety, she was admitted onto the Oviva programme – which provides qualifying patients with up to two years of injections on the NHS.

Within one year of taking the injections, Stacie managed to lose 10st. She has since kept the weight off by eating less and ditching sugar-filled fizzy drinks. 

She tied the know with husband John Hird, 44, on July 4 this year. Following Stacie’s remarkable weight loss journey, she was thrilled to be able to walk down the aisle in the ‘dress of my dreams’ as a size 8. The couple got engaged in August 2025.

Stacie, who now weighs 8st 10lb, said: ‘I got stuck in a rut and I turned a blind eye. I hit a low when I saw 18st 10lb on the scales, and realised I could easily hit 20st if I didn’t change something. 

‘I came across the NHS Oviva programme. I felt so lucky to be given the opportunity, when other people had to pay for these medications – so I knew I wanted to give it my all.

‘I would keep my cravings in check because I didn’t deny myself foods I enjoyed – I’d just have a child’s portion when we got an Indian takeaway, or I’d have a McDonald’s Happy Meal.’

When Stacie realised she had ‘finally reached the weight’ she had been hoping for in February, she described it as a ‘surreal feeling’.   

‘My wedding day was the best day of my life, I could never imagine myself getting married at the weight I was before but I got to wear the dress of my dreams and I felt amazing,’ she said. 

‘Oviva really has changed my life. I felt amazing wearing the dress I dreamed of, that I previously never had the confidence to wear.

‘It was a dream come true.’

After gainins weight following the birth of her first child, Stacie said she was unable to lose it before the birth of her son, now ten, with her now-husband John. 

She noticed that over time her clothes had become tighter and she felt herself getting more breathless along with dizzy spells and low energy levels.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, she was 14st 7lb and a size 16. Yet being less active during the lockdown period only made matters worse. 

She said: ‘I got to a size 22 and I was just buying clothes because they fit, not because I thought I looked or felt good.

‘I got depressed about my weight, I had struggles walking, and my asthma became worse as the weight increased. I used to go to bed Googling ways to lose weight quickly but the crash diets never worked.’

Last March, Stacie started her course of Wegovy and used the programme’s app to log her diet and exercise.

‘I fully engaged – I knew it was now or never,’ she said. 

She said: ‘I never thought it would be possible until it happened!’

This March, after one year, Stacie came off the jabs. However, she insisted that a better understanding of food through the app’s learning modules has helped her ‘re-train my brain so I could be consistent in what I eat’.  

‘Now I can see clothes and know they’ll fit. It’s so freeing, I feel better physically and also in my mind, I feel much more content,’ she said.

‘The feeling of breathlessness has gone away, I can walk for miles and run around with my son.’