‘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 actress who received a Covid jab while living in the UK has spoken of her distress after suffering a rare but devastating side effect from the vaccination.

In February 2020, just weeks before Covid swept the world, Melle Stewart was enjoying a standing ovation in Belfast for her role in the musical ‘Kiss Me, Kate’.

Now, the 42-year-old struggles to articulate a sentence, speaks very slowly and “regrets” the successful theater career she has lost.

Ms Stewart is the victim of an increasingly rare side effect from the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, which she received in May 2021 as part of the country’s historic vaccine rollout.

Like a handful of other Britons, he suffered a devastating blood clot complication from the blow, resulting in a stroke that took away his ability to speak and walk.

But Ms Stewart suffered a devastating stroke as a result of an extremely rare but incredibly dangerous complication from the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

Ms Stewart, along with other claimants, is now taking AstraZeneca to court, and her husband Ben Lewis says they felt misled by the government about the safety of the vaccine.

Although she suffered greatly, she was and remains a “unconditional and proud” defender of vaccination, and after her injury she received other Covid vaccines that were not AstraZeneca.

Mrs Stewart described how, as an actress, the loss of her ability to express herself had been devastating.

‘Words are my life and they are gone. 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.

He recalled how a volunteer at the center had commented that he looked too young to be eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Just weeks earlier, health officials had withdrawn the AstraZeneca vaccine from anyone under 40, spooked by a link to life-threatening blood clots in this group.

However, Ms Stewart corrected the volunteer, as she had turned 40 in November 2020.

With that, he received the AstraZeneca shot, and even received a post-injection sticker to commemorate the occasion.

Two weeks later he was fighting for his life.

Stewart woke up in the middle of the night, 14 days after his injection, because of a “strange sensation” on the right side of his body.

He tried to get out of bed but collapsed.

Rushed to the hospital, she quickly lost all ability to walk and talk.

Scans revealed he had suffered a stroke caused by two blood clots that had formed in the main vein of his brain.

Surgeons fought to save his life and were eventually forced to remove part of his skull in a desperate attempt to reduce the pressure building in his brain.

Investigations revealed that he was a victim of vaccine-induced thrombocytopenic thrombosis (VITT).

VITT is a complication of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine so rare that it was not detected in clinical trials. It occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks a normal blood component called platelet factor 4, causing clumps that can form blood clots.

Ms Stewart would spend the next few weeks in an induced coma, receiving blood transfusions to help eliminate antibodies that cause clots.

After waking up, Ms Stewart spent a long stay in hospital learning to walk and talk again, and did not leave until February last year.

The actress 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 with a “strange feeling” and then collapsed, shortly after being rushed to hospital.

Scans revealed he had suffered a stroke caused by two blood clots that had formed in the main vein of his brain.

Lewis, a fellow actor, stopped working to care for his wife.

He insisted the couple is not anti-vaccine, but believes the government misled them about the safety of the vaccine.

“We had the expectation that this vaccine would be safe to use, but AstraZeneca was not safe 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 sum falls far short of their lost income. For this reason, they are taking legal action against AstraZeneca.

“Although there are only a relatively small number of people injured or worse, it is up to the Government to deal with the few people who have done the right thing for the country and society,” Mr Lewis told the newspaper.

The couple currently lives in Brisbane to be closer to the support offered by their family and friends.

They have a fundraising to support your loss of income and Ms. Stewart’s continued care and recovery.

An AstraZeneca spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Patient safety is our top priority and regulatory authorities have clear and strict standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines.

“Our solidarity is with anyone who has lost a loved one or reported health problems.”

They added that evidence has repeatedly shown that the company’s Covid vaccine, called Vaxzevria, is safe.

“Vaxzevria has been continually 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.

He would spend the next few weeks in an induced coma, receiving blood transfusions to help eliminate antibodies that cause clots.

Ms Stewart (right) had enjoyed a successful career in UK theatre, shown here in the role of Alice in a 2015 production of ‘A Damsel in Distress’ staged at Chichester’s Festival Theatre.

Ms Stewart is only able to speak slowly and with great effort, and described how, as an actress, the loss of her ability to express herself had been devastating: “Words are my life and now it’s gone.”

“The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has granted full approval for the marketing of Vaxzevria in the UK based on the safety profile and efficacy of the vaccine.”

Ms Stewart’s sharing of her ordeal comes just days after two trial cases of other AstraZeneca victims were released in the UK, a move that could pave the way for dozens more.

One of the plaintiffs is computer engineer Jamie Scott, who suffered a brain hemorrhage the day after his first AstraZeneca shot, leaving him with permanent brain damage.

His lawyers will argue that the vaccine was “defective” and that data on the vaccine’s effectiveness against the diseases was “grossly exaggerated.”

Another case comes from the widower and two children of Alpa Tailor, 35, who died from blood clots in the brain after receiving the injection.

If successful, vaccine damage payments could be around £1m each.

With 90 British families in similar situations, the total bill could reach £90 million.

The British taxpayer is expected to foot the bill under a compensation deal signed by ministers in the darkest days of the Covid pandemic to get vaccines produced as quickly as possible.

MHRA data suggests 81 Britons have died as a result of blood clot complications linked to the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, and a further unconfirmed number have been injured and/or disabled.

Nearly 50 million doses of the company’s vaccine, which was developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, have been distributed in the United Kingdom.

It is credited with saving 6 million lives worldwide by offering protection against serious illnesses caused by the Covid virus.