A fit and healthy dad who ran his own business and was the perfect weight piled on around 60lbs after a serious road accident ‘destroyed’ his body. Nicholas Denham, 41, was an active removal man until inJuly 2023 a truck suddenly pulled out in front of him on an Oxfordshire road.
Though he has no memory of it now, his bike hit the vehicle in front and he was left with broken bones and catastrophic injuries. Nicholas said: “I broke both my arms completely and all the lines in hospital had to be put in through my feet. Then I was on codeine for the pain and had to have enemas and they put a catheter in to go to the toilet because I couldn’t get up. I had multiple operations in hospital – although I can’t remember a lot of it – and multiple skin drafts. It was traumatic; a very bad point.”
Nicholas, from Witney, still has a long road to recovery ahead whilst he waits for numerous operations this year, including a complete knee reconstruction to rebuild all of the ligaments that were damaged in the crash.
He said: “My recovery is still ongoing due to poly traumatic injuries to both my left and right wrists, genitalia and right knee. The accident changed my life irrefutably; I have lost everything including my business and it’s affected my mental health. I’ve had more than a year of psychiatric help which is still ongoing, I have constant anxiety about my future and take multiple painkillers every day.”
Nicholas Denham gained 60lbs after the serious accident
But Nicholas is acutely aware that he is lucky to be alive; the police told him had he been riding his smaller race bike, his head would have been hit and he would have been killed in the crash. In the months after his collision, Nicholas found himself taking comfort in food and alcohol, indulging in sweets and junk food and drinking a bottle of wine and four or five beers each night.
!I was comfort eating and drinking alcohol after being diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety. It was a way to numb everything. But without being able to exercise because of my injuries, I ballooned to 17st 5lb (111kg) from around 13st 9lb (88kg). After the accident, I ended up in a hospital bed downstairs, where I stayed for five months, living off junk food. I couldn’t get out and do much, I had social anxiety and then I got to the point where I was waking up and every day felt like groundhog day.”
Nicholas has lost half the weight he wants to shift
When he reached BMI 34.2, he asked his GP for support and asked to be prescribed Mounjaro weight loss injections, but the NHS wasn’t able to fund the treatment and the wait for a prescription to self-fund the injections would have taken six or seven weeks. A neighbour who had lost weight recommended Goodbody Clinic and in the past two months, he’s lost 12kg – 26lbs 7oz – and is half way to his goal.
“Mounjaro has given me my life back – I’m getting back into my own clothes, I’m able to start using a treadmill again, move more and I have a lot more energy. Before losing weight, I needed to sleep every afternoon. But now I no longer have food cravings and have been able to stop snacking and overeating.
“I now feel like my life is on a new path. I have three more operations to go and I’m focused on my recovery, taking every day at a time. Mounjaro has had a massive impact on my recovery – it has given me back my motivation, my self-confidence and has allowed me to have some control over my life again,” he adds.