Slimming pills killed my wife

A GRIEVING husband yesterday demanded an official inquiry into the sudden death of his wife who had been taking controversial pills supplied by a private slimming centre doctor.

John Ellis's 49-year-old wife Jennifer had been making secret visits to Dr Deanna Jepson at one of her seven slimming clinics.

Three days after paying Dr Jepson pounds 11 for Ionamin - an amphetamine-like pill which speeds up the metabolism so that calories are burned faster - Jennifer collapsed with a brain haemorrhage.

Heartbroken John said: "My wife was handed these pills even though she was already taking pills for high blood pressure. I'm convinced she'd be alive today if she had not taken Ionamin."

Ionamin was one of several slimming pills last week put on a "danger list" by the Government after a report linked them to at least 15 deaths around the country. Hundreds of other users have suffered serious side-effects.

Lorry driver John, 49, from York, said: "My wife was full of fun and life. But like a lot of women she had this thing about her weight.

"I wouldn't mind, but she wasn't even fat. Jennifer was 5ft 8in tall and weighed 11st 5lb. As far as I was concerned she was fine and I loved her.""

It was only after the tragic mum's death on her ninth wedding anniversary that John found the pills and learned she had been visiting Dr Jepson's York clinic.

He said: "I didn't think anything about it until I read the reports about the dangers of slimming pills. Then it all clicked into place. I knew from our GP's attitude that she shouldn't have been taking them with her condition."

She had been diagnosed in 1994 with high blood pressure by her GP, Dr Peter Harrison.

On Friday, John lodged a complaint with the General Medical Council. He also plans to ask for an inquest.

John, who is looking after his wife's 15-year-old son Jonathan from a previous marriage, said: "These pills should be banned or at very least be put on prescription."

Dr Jepson - whose Private Medical Slimming Clinic has branches in York, Doncaster, Wakefield, Sheffield, Leeds, Burnley and Harrogate - said she did not know Jennifer had died. At first she claimed Jennifer had not been to her "for a couple of months".

But told that her husband had a cheque stub for payment to the clinic three days before her death on March 22, she said she had been "mistaken".

A former GP, she claimed Jennifer, "was like Princess Diana" with her weight. "She was obsessive," said Chinese-born Dr Jepson who said she checked Jennifer's blood pressure and it had "stabilised".

She added: "Mrs Ellis signed a document which stopped us from approaching her GP. It is nonsense to say Ionamin is dangerous. There is no evidence to prove this. I do not believe she could have died because of it."

Labour's shadow health secretary Harriet Harman said yesterday: "There must be a full inquiry into the slimming industry."

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