Becki Ward was using Mounjaro at the time
09:24, 12 Feb 2026Updated 09:36, 12 Feb 2026
Becki Ward and before having the tumour removed(Image: Becki Ward/SWNS)
A woman who thought she couldn’t lose weight on Mounjaro because she was “lazy” discovered she had a 12kg cancerous tumour growing inside her. Becki Ward, 33, decided to start weight loss jabs after struggling to shift the pounds naturally, but was confused as they didn’t seem to be working.
After stomach pains and night sweats, she went to the doctors and, after five months of tests, was finally diagnosed with pseudomyxoma peritonei – an extremely rare form of mucinous cancer. Becki’s stomach continued to grow so large it looked like she was “having twins”, and in August 2025, she had surgery to remove the 12kg tumour, as well as removing some of her organs and having a full hysterectomy, putting her into early menopause.
Becki, a trainee education mental health practitioner from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, said: “I’ve always struggled with my weight, so I decided to start taking Mounjaro in October 2024. At first it was working well and suppressing my appetite, but then I realised I wasn’t losing weight as fast as everybody else.
“I assumed it wasn’t working because I’m in my 30s, I was lazy, or I was overeating. I’ve always struggled, so I thought it must just be me.
“Then I started to get night sweats and stomach pains, I’d read on the news about people getting pancreatitis from Mounjaro and I started panicking and thought that’s what I had. After five months of testing, I was diagnosed with pseudomyxoma peritonei.
“I was so shocked when I got the diagnosis, the thing I’ve always been most terrified of is getting cancer. I just wasn’t expecting it, and I immediately thought the worst.
“My stomach continued to grow, and days before the surgery, I looked like I was about to give birth to twins. By the time they removed the tumour, it was huge, it weighed 12kg.
“I also had a hysterectomy and was plunged into early menopause. Doctors gave me HRT, which helped a lot, but it’s really hard to find any support or any information for women going through menopause at my age.”
Becki Ward thought she couldn’t lose weight on Mounjaro because she was lazy(Image: Becki Ward/SWNS)
Becki has always struggled with her weight and in October 2024 decided to start taking 7.5mg Mounjaro after reaching 18st 7lbs. At first, the jabs worked and she lost weight, but she became confused when she had only lost a stone over three months.
“Some people were losing half a stone a week, and I was only losing one or two pounds in the same amount of time,” she said. She started getting night sweats, but put this down to a Mounjaro side effect at first.
But when she got stomach pains, she went to the doctors to get blood tests and to check her organs and was shocked when tumour markers flagged up. Doctors initially thought Becki had ovarian cancer, but they carried out more tests to be sure.
They discovered a 22cm cyst on Becki’s left ovary, but doctors took five months to finally diagnose her with pseudomyxoma peritonei – a cancer so rare that only two hospitals in the UK can treat it. Pseudomyxoma peritonei is a rare type of mucinous cancer that is characterised by the build-up of a jelly-like substance called mucin in the abdominal cavity.
It is nicknamed “jelly belly”, as it causes swelling in the stomach, which is why Becki wasn’t able to lose weight. Symptoms often don’t appear until a significant amount of mucin has built up, leading doctors to believe that Becki may have had the cancer for five years, without knowing.
Becki was booked in for an eight-hour surgery in August 2025, which ended up taking 11 hours, as the cancer had spread further than doctors initially realised. Doctors removed all of the visible signs of cancer by removing Becki’s spleen, her appendix, her gall bladder, her omentum (a fold of fatty tissue in the abdomen), her peritoneum (a protective layer inside the abdomen), gave her a total hysterectomy and removed a 12kg tumour.
Becki Ward in hospital(Image: Becki Ward/SWNS)
Then, immediately following the surgery, they circulated heated chemotherapy inside her abdomen to kill microscopic cancer cells that can’t be seen during surgery. The surgery put Becki into early menopause at just 33, meaning that she will never be able to have children. Thankfully, Becki and her husband Ed, 36, had already made the decision not to have children before the diagnosis, but she said she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like if she wanted to start a family.
“I can imagine it would be devastating for a lot of people as 33 is the age when so many people want to have a baby,” she said. After five days in intensive care and a total of two weeks in hospital, Becki was sent home and was put on HRT to help with the symptoms of her menopause, such as hot sweats.
Becki is now slowly recovering, but despite struggling with her energy levels and picking up heavy objects, she is mostly doing OK. Doctors now believe Becki is cancer-free, but she will have to go for regular checks at the doctor’s for the next 20 years, as the cancer has a 30% chance of recurring.