Welcome to Unmissable, our weekly digest of the stories we think you might have missed.
A video which the narrator describes as a ‘no BS guide on how to reconstitute your retitrutide'(Image: TikTok)
The best stories are often stranger and wilder than fiction. When our reporter Stephen Topping unveiled his plans for an investigation into fake weight-loss drugs being promoted on social media, both of us found ourselves repeatedly asking: can this possibly be real?
As we dug deeper it got ever stranger.
Welcome to Unmissable, our weekly digest of stories we think you might have missed.
Earlier this year we wrote about the dangerous sale of weight-loss drugs online. We revealed how for just £40 you could purchase drugs claiming to be Wegovy or Ozempic, both part of a class of drugs containing semaglutide, a prescription only medication in the UK.
It took just ten minutes to find someone willing to sell to us without asking any questions about age, medical history, or being given any medical guidance. It was an investigation that revealed a shockingly dangerous prospect – that vulnerable people could purchase these items online without any checks on them or on the drugs they’re buying.
This weekend, we published an indirect follow-up to that story, in which we revealed that a simple search on TikTok and Instagram could lead people to purchase fake versions of a weight-loss drug that is still in development: Retatrutide.
Some social media content creators are having a field-day introducing people to these rip-off versions of the drug, which is being developed by pharma giant Eli Lilly and is currently in its third stage of development.
That people can buy fake versions online, and that some fitness influencers are promoting it when it hasn’t finished being tested and hasn’t been given approval, makes the mind-boggle.
Following our investigation a number of pages were quickly taken down by Instagram and TikTok. You can read the latest story here.
Elsewhere, on a lighter, but no less fascinating note, the brilliant Beth Abbit spent some time with Brian and the other Corrie superfans outside the studio gates in Trafford and found them delightful and weird in equal measure.
Chief reporter Neal Keeling drills down into a story like no one else, and his weekend piece about a furious planning row on millionaire’s row in Whitefield, was a great example of finding a complex story beneath a seemingly straightforward planning application.
Dianne Bourne, so often the newsroom guinea pig when it comes to lifestyle trends, spent a month eating nothing but organic food and revealed what it did for her health.
Jenna Campbell went to the ‘Harrods of the North’ in Oldham – the Housing Units – and encountered a Manchester institution containing very pricey furniture, a decent café, a top-hat wearing greeter and robot waiters.
And finally a shameless plug for my review this weekend of a wonderful trip to Whitby, in which I revealed how unhealthy I am and how much I love wine and fish and chips.
If you fancy an insight into my poor life choices, in a wonderful seaside town, that’s here.
A simple search on TikTok and Instagram is leading people down a dangerous path.
Social media content creators have been marketing fake versions of retatrutide
M.E.N. INVESTIGATION: Experts warn lives are being put at risk by fake versions of Retatrutide – with the real thing still in trials. Stephen Topping investigates a worrying online trend. Read it HERE.
At the gates of Coronation Street studios with the superfans.
Brian with Tina O’Brien
“You make friends for life here because you’re interested in the same thing. You have a shared interest and you put the world to rights.” Read it HERE.
A quiet war on Millionaire’s Row.
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
As plans emerge for a children’s home on a street in Bury, residents mount an intense campaign to protect what they call the character of their exclusive area. Neal Keeling reports. Read it HERE.
‘I ate only organic food for a month – this is what impact it had on my health’
Reporter Dianne Bourne took part in a trial to see what impact eating ONLY organic food and drink for a month would have on her gut health and well-being(Image: MEN)
Our writer swapped everything in her diet to organic for a whole month, this is how she got on. Read it HERE.
My wonderfully weird lunch at a Greater Manchester furniture emporium
The department store opened nearly 80 years ago(Image: Manchester Evening News)
The department store is a Manchester institution. Read it HERE.
‘I climbed Whitby’s 199 Steps after a large glass of wine – it was worth every wobble’
The 199 steps. It was a test I passed – just.
Rob Williams and his family stayed in the wonderful Peony Rose Cottage while they explored Whitby and found challenges and delights. Not least picking where to have your fish and chips. Read it HERE.