'I'm having my testicle replaced with an artificial one, and being paid £60,000': Meet the clinical trial addict who'll do ANYTHING for money



Mark Parisi, from Las Vegas, is addicted to entering paid clinical trials

Soon he will have one testicle removed, and will be paid $35,000 (£57,445)



Appears on new TV show about frugal US citizens, Extreme Cheapskates

Others include woman who saves urine to flush toilet

Also a family of four who share baths and sleep in the same bed

And a mother who found a breast pump in a junk yard skip



Most medical trials involve spending a couple of days in a dressing gown playing video games while popping a new brand of aspirin, and being written a check for a few hundred pounds at the end of it.

But to be rewarded with the big bucks you have to take the big risks. And you'll always find someone willing to put their neck - or, in this case, their testicles - on the line.

For the past six years Mark Parisi from Las Vegas has been volunteering in medical studies, and the more extreme the better. It means he gets free medical check-ups, saving himself over $750 (£457) a year.

And for his next one he shall have one testicle removed and replaced with an artificial one... being paid $35,000 (£57,445) for the ordeal.

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Mark spending a penny in the toilet

'It's just one of my testicles, not both,' Mark told TLC, the channel behind the show. 'And they give me an artificial one, so I'll still have two working parts.'

As well as being paid for the clinical trials he took part in, Mark would also take home the scrubs he was given to wear during his hospital stays, saving a small fortune on workout clothes and pyjamas.



Mark's extraordinary story is told on a new television documentary following the lives of some of America's most frugal citizens, Extreme Cheapskates.

The show explores the frugal world of individuals who are constantly searching for unique ways to cut costs by any means necessary.



Mark with all the surgical scrubs he took after each of his clinical trials

But these penny-pinchers don’t just reuse teabags and turn the lights off when they leave a room, they take it much, much further.



Angel is eight months pregnant, but still visits junk yards to find bits and pieces needed for her costly new arrival. She even digs around in a skip to find a free breast pump.

Michael, meanwhile, is constantly inventing new ways to save money and finds new use for everything. His latest tip? Using his old bath water do to the laundry.

The first episode follows super-saver couple Karissa and Rick, who not only share a shower with a two minute time limit, they also share their razor, toothbrush, cotton buds and dental floss.

Karissa and Rick plan to share the same coffin by having the first one to die exhumed and adding the other

Rick uses the suds from Karissa's hair when they are shampooing, so a bottle of shampoo lasts them eight months.



The couple are extremely competitive and always try and think of new ways to save more money than each other. Rick put into place a flushing system whereby whoever flushes more pays more towards the water bill.



They have also saved on their funeral, which they have planned and paid for already to save on inflation costs.



Michael at his invention desk

The couple will even share a casket, by having the casket exhumed after whoever was buried first, in order to add the second.

Torski, 37, from Virginia, is the ultimate cheapskate mother.

She uses electricity to vacuum, cook and cut the hedges after midnight when it’s cheaper, and her motto is 'if it's not broke, we don't replace it'.



She proudly has the cheapest water bill in her neighbourhood, and also saves on costs by burning her rubbish instead of having it collected, saving $80 (£48) a month.

