‘Words were my life but now they’re gone’: Actress, 42, left unable to perform after suffering stroke triggered by AstraZeneca Covid jab
An Australian actor who received a Covid jab while living in Britain has told of her heartbreak after suffering a rare but devastating side effect of vaccination.
In February 2020, just weeks before Covid ripped through the world, Melle Stewart enjoyed standing ovations in Belfast for her role in the musical ‘Kiss Me, Kate’.
Now the 42-year-old struggles to put together a sentence, speaks only slowly and “mourns” the successful stage career she lost.
Ms Stewart is the victim of an extremely rare side effect from the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, which she received in May 2021 as part of the country’s historic rollout.
Like a handful of other Britons, the jab left her with a devastating complication of blood clots, resulting in a stroke that robbed her of her ability to talk and walk.
Melle Stewart and her husband Ben Lewis were enjoying successful careers in theater before Covid struck and were keen to get vaccinated to help the UK get back to normal
But Ms Stewart suffered a devastating stroke due to an extremely rare but incredibly dangerous complication of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine
Ms Stewart, along with other claimants, has now taken AstraZeneca to court, with husband Ben Lewis saying they felt misled by the government over the safety of the jab.
Although she has suffered a lot, she was and remains a “staunch and proud” proponent of vaccination, having received other non-AstraZeneca Covid vaccines since her injury.
Ms Stewart described how losing her ability to express herself as an actor was devastating.
‘Words are my life and it’s over now. I say the words, but getting them out is a problem,” she said The Telegraph.
Ms Stewart received her first Covid vaccine on May 24, 2021 at the then Sandown Park Vaccination Center in London.
She recalled how a volunteer at the center had commented that she looked too young to qualify for the AstraZeneca jab.
Just weeks earlier, health officials had administered the AstraZeneca shot to everyone under the age of 40, alarmed by a link to potentially fatal blood clots in this group.
However, Ms Stewart corrected the volunteer as she had turned 40 in November 2020.
With this, she received the jab from AstraZeneca and even received a sticker after the jab to mark the occasion.
Two weeks later she was fighting for her life.
Ms Stewart woke up at midnight, 14 days after her jab, due to a ‘strange feeling’ on the right side of her body.
She tried to get out of bed, but collapsed.
She was rushed to the hospital and soon lost all ability to walk and speak.
Scans showed she had suffered a stroke caused by two blood clots that had formed in the main artery of her brain.
Surgeons fought to save her life and were eventually forced to remove part of her skull in a desperate bid to relieve the pressure building up in her brain.
Investigation revealed that she was a victim of vaccine-induced thrombocytopenic thrombosis (VITT).
VITT is a complication of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine that is so rare it was missed in clinical trials. It occurs when the body’s immune system accidentally attacks a normal component of the blood called platelet factor 4, causing clots that can then form blood clots.
Ms Stewart would spend the next few weeks in an induced coma and receive blood transfusions to help remove the antibodies that cause the clots.
After waking, Ms Stewart spent a lengthy stay in hospital learning to walk and speak again, only leaving in February last year.
The actor received her Covid vaccine on May 24, 2021 at the then Sandown Park Vaccination Center in London
What followed was a terrifying ordeal 14 days later when he woke up in the middle of the night from a ‘strange feeling’ and then collapsed shortly after being rushed to hospital.
Scans revealed she had suffered a stroke caused by two blood clots that formed in the main artery of her brain
Mr. Lewis, a fellow actor, quit work to care for his wife.
He insisted the couple are not anti-vaxxers but believes they have been misled by the government about the safety of the jab.
“We had the expectation that this vaccine was safe to use, but AstraZeneca was not safe to use in this case,” he told The Telegraph.
The couple say they have received a no-fault payment of £120,000 from the government – offered to those who can prove they have been left seriously disabled as a result of vaccination or to the families of those killed by jabs.
But the couple said the amount is far less than their lost income. As a result, they are taking legal action against AstraZeneca.
“While only a relatively small number of people are injured or worse, it is the government’s job to look after the few people who have done the right thing for the country and society,” Lewis told the newspaper.
The couple currently lives in Brisbane to be closer to the support provided by their family and friends.
They have one fundraising to support their loss of income and Mrs Stewart’s ongoing care and recovery.
An AstraZeneca spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Patient safety is our top priority and regulators have clear and strict standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines.
“Our condolences go out to everyone who has lost loved ones or reported health problems.”
They added that evidence has repeatedly shown that the company’s Covid jab, called Vaxzevria, is safe.
“Vaxzevria has been consistently shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects,” they said.
She would spend the next few weeks in an induced coma and receive blood transfusions to help remove the antibodies that cause the clots.
Ms Stewart (right) had had a successful career in British theatre, pictured here in the role of Alice in a 2015 production of ‘A Damsel in Distress’ performed at the Festival Theatre, Chichester
Mrs. Stewart can only speak slowly and with great difficulty. She described how losing her ability to express herself as an actor was devastating: ‘Words are my life and it’s over now’
‘The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has granted full approval to Vaxzevria for Britain based on the safety profile and efficacy of the vaccine.’
Ms Stewart’s sharing of her ordeal comes just days after two cases of other AstraZeneca victims were launched in Britain, a move that could pave the way for dozens more.
One of the plaintiffs is IT engineer Jamie Scott, who suffered a brain hemorrhage the day after his first AstraZeneca shot, causing permanent brain damage.
His lawyers will argue that the jab was ‘flawed’ and that data on how effectively the jab protected against disease was ‘vastly exaggerated’.
Another case is being brought by the widower and two children of Alpa Tailor, 35, who died from blood clots in her brain after the shot.
If successful, vaccine damage payouts could be around £1 million each.
With 90 British families in similar situations, the total bill could be £90 million.
British taxpayers are expected to foot the bill under an indemnity deal signed by ministers in the darkest days of the Covid pandemic to get vaccines produced as quickly as possible.
MHRA data shows 81 Britons have died due to blood clot complications linked to the AstraZeneca Covid jab, with a further unconfirmed number injured and/or disabled.
Nearly 50 million doses of the company’s jab, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, have been distributed in Britain.
It is said to have saved 6 million lives worldwide by protecting against serious illness from the Covid virus.