A 43-year-old mother of six has been left “exhausted and frustrated” when she lost her voice hours after receiving her second AstraZeneca Covid injection.

Sofia Gomes feels isolated and alone despite seeing doctors and being admitted to hospital when her partner called for help.

Since then, Sofia has been released but apart from the possibility of speech therapy, says she has been unable to access any short or medium support.

She outlined her problems in an email to me and I met her today in a coffee shop in Wisbech.

Her youngest, in a pram, was next to our table and on the café table Sofia had a notepad ready to write down responses to my questions.

Eastern Daily Press: Sofia Gomes, 43, and a mother of six, who has lost her voice after her second AstraZeneca Covid vaccination. This was after we interviewed her in Wisbech in June - we posed the questions and she wrote down the answers.Sofia Gomes, 43, and a mother of six, who has lost her voice after her second AstraZeneca Covid vaccination. This was after we interviewed her in Wisbech in June - we posed the questions and she wrote down the answers. (Image: Archant)

Sofia says she “wants to share my story to raise awareness” but is also keen to discover if others have experienced similar outcomes, and if there is a cure.

“I had my second jab on the 19th of May,” she wrote. “That night I started feeling side effects that my partner and I thought might be an allergic reaction.”

He called for help and Sofia was admitted to hospital.

“It was only then I realised my voice had gone – the doctors said my voice would come back but they don’t know when.”

She added: “I have six children and it is very difficult to cope, and very frustrating.”

Eastern Daily Press: Sofia Gomes, 43, and a mother of six, who has lost her voice after her second AstraZeneca Covid vaccination.Sofia Gomes, 43, and a mother of six, who has lost her voice after her second AstraZeneca Covid vaccination. (Image: Archant)

Sofia says she had side effects from her first jab – ear pain for which she was given a spray – but “definitely not this bad”.

She is originally from Portugal but has lived in this country for the past 26 years.

“On the night of my second jab I started to feel my throat getting very tight,” she recalls. “And as it worsened my partner ended up calling for an ambulance. When I was taken to hospital, I knew it was a bad situation.”

She says hospital staff performed various scans and examined her throat closely but could find nothing obviously wrong.

“It the middle of the same night, however, I noticed I couldn’t speak. They checked me with various I think several specialists came to examine me but, in the end, there was no explanation. All they said was the jab may have caused it.”

Sofia says one possibility is that she may have lost command motions from the brain and that the throat was waiting for them - “that seems to be what they think, but I am not sure”.