BBC forced to take down Dragons Den episode amid safety fears over product

The BBC have been forced to take down an episode of Dragons Den amid safety fears over a featured product that made history.

Giselle Boxer, 31, from Sheffield won the multimillionaire judges over when she appeared on the entrepreneurs and business programme to pitch her ‘ear seeds’ business.

The panel of rich business experts were fighting to put their money behind her as Ms Boxer received a record-breaking six offers.

After stepping through the lift doors to take the floor before them, Ms Boxer explained in her pitch that while working as a 26-year-old professional for a top advertising agency and being fit and active, she received a diagnosis for the incurable condition of ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis). 

ME, also called chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS, is a condition that causes extreme tiredness and a range of other symptoms in sufferers. In some cases it can have a devastating impact on the sufferer’s functional ability and quality of life.

According to the NHS website Common symptoms of ME/CFS include:

• feeling extremely tired all the time – you may find it very hard to do daily activities
• still feeling tired after resting or sleeping
• taking a long time to recover after physical activity
• problems sleeping, such as waking up often during the night
• problems with thinking, memory and concentration

Some people with ME/CFS may also have other symptoms, including:

• muscle or joint pain
• headaches
• a sore throat
• flu-like symptoms
• feeling dizzy or sick
• fast or irregular heartbeats (heart palpitations)

There is currently no cure for the condition, but health professionals can offer treatments to help sufferers manage their condition.

In her speech where she aimed to convince the Dragons – Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones, Touker Suleyman, Steven Bartlett, Sara Davies and Gary Neville – to invest in her company Acu Seeds, Ms Boxer claimed ME left her mostly housebound and ‘unable to walk for more than five minutes without having to get back into bed’.

She said that doctors had told her she would never ‘recover, work again or have children’.

The devastating news urged her to go about finding ‘her own personal healing journey’ where she tried changing her diet, acupuncture, Chinese herbs and ear seeds.

About the product, the business woman explained: “Ear seeds are an ancient Chinese medicine tool, based on the principles of acupuncture, but without the needles. 

“They are tiny beads, which stick onto the ear, applying pressure onto nerve endings. They send signals to the brain and body to relax the nervous system, release endorphins and naturally relieve pain.”

She said the product had ‘aided her recovery within 12 months’ and soon after, she fell pregnant.

Ms Boxer was looking for a £50,000 investment in return for a 10% cut of the business, which saw her settling on a 12% return as she shook hands with Diary of a CEO podcaster, Steven Bartlett.

However, her product Acu Seeds was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority soon after the episode aired on January 18th, with complaints that she had made ‘unproven claims’.

Charity Action for M.E. sent an open letter to the chairs of two House of Commons select committees explaining it was ‘very concerned’ about Boxer’s promotion of her product.

The charity posted to its X (formerly Twitter) page saying: “We have coordinated an open letter with other M.E. orgs in response to the recent Dragons Den episode in which a contestant made unevidenced claims regarding the efficacy of ‘acu seeds’ as a treatment for #MECFS.” 

The charity also shared a link to the letter. In it, it said Ms Boxer suggested in her pitch how Acu Seeds were ‘responsible for her recovery and should therefore be considered an effective treatment’.

Alongside this, medical professionals and members of the public submitted complaints which said the product was giving sufferers of ME  ‘false hope’, which prompted the BBC to take the episode down from iPlayer.

The broadcaster said that it was ‘taking concerns raised seriously’ though ‘products being featured on the show should not be seen as an endorsement of them’.