NHS nurse who lost the use of her hands after an AstraZeneca jab was told she is 'not disabled enough' to receive compensation

Marie-Claire Hoyle, a 44-year-old NHS nurse and mother of three, developed transverse myelitis — a rare condition causing severe spinal inflammation — just two weeks after her second dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in August 2020. The government's Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme accepted the vaccine caused her condition but refused her £120,000 payout because her symptoms had since partially improved, leaving her below the 60 per cent disability threshold. Her spinal cord remains permanently damaged, and she still suffers nerve pain and chest numbness that will never fully recover. She is now demanding an overhaul of the compensation scheme.

Hoyle has said: 'I lost the ability to use my hands, I couldn't hold a pen, I couldn't hold a toothbrush.'

Baroness Hallett's Covid-19 Inquiry called for reform of the VDPS last April, and Lady Hallett is working to lower the disability threshold.

The scheme pays only a one-off £120,000 — and only if victims can prove they remain at least 60 per cent disabled, a bar many injured claimants cannot clear.