Pilot scheme Type Two diabetes patient vows 'never to go back' after dramatic weight loss and new lease of life

Peter Jackson said he feels great, with a “sense of achievement,” after losing more than a quarter of his body weight on the new Type Two Diabetes Remission initiative pioneered by the Ulster Hospital.

The programme is aimed at Type Two patients who are over-weight and have recently received a diagnosis.

It follows three phases. The first one provides a diet composed of nutritionally complete total diet replacement products such as soups and shakes, for up to 12 weeks. The second begins a reintroduction of food for six weeks, and the third provides 34 weeks of subsequent weight maintenance support.

The 68-year-old Saintfield man is now in remission, having started the remission programme when he was aged 65 under the guidance of consultant endocrinologist, Dr Roy Harper at the Ulster Hospital in August 2021.

Mr Jackson said: “From my own perspective I feel really good, I feel really positive and I have a sense of achievement.”

Explaining the benefits, he said: “The basis of the programme was powdered soups and shakes along with at least two and a half litres of water a day over 12 weeks. The target was to lose 15 pent cent of my body weight.

"When I started I was 19 and a half stone. By December 2021, I had lost five stone and my blood pressure tablets were lowered in dosage.

"The support I received from my family, from the doctors and nurses at the Ulster Hospital including Dr Harper and diabetes specialist dietitian, Lara Jackson was huge, it was massive!

"Lara was there for me and the other participants who had decided that this programme was what they wanted to do.”

Peter has credited his extremely supportive family and grandchildren for their encouragement – helping him to stick with the programme as he made the changes to his diet and lifestyle.

"I will never go back to where I was,” he said.

"Having the right mental attitude and right intentions play a big part. In my working life, I was a rep here in Northern Ireland and across the United Kingdom. I would have grabbed food and snacks throughout the day. A lot of my job was eating on the ‘hoof’. After the completion of the 12-week programme, you start to introduce food and you get lots of information on how to plan your meals, that is a big positive.”

He added: “My advice to anyone who may be considering the programme is to talk to the doctors, talk to the nurses, believe that you can do it! I’m now walking the dogs for two hours a day, I couldn’t have done that at 19 and a half stone. I’m walking down the street like the King of Saintfield!”

The Ulster Hospital’s diabetes specialist dietitian, Lara Jackson, explained how those meeting the criteria for the programme can be referred to the programme by their GP or diabetes team, saying: “Patients will be invited to attend our assessment clinic where the programme is discussed along with the commitment to attend the sessions and take only soups and shakes for three months”.