On December 15, 2021, Larry Lowe’s life changed.

He was 54, rarely fell ill, was fit and ran 10 km most days – Until they got the Pfizer Covid booster,

Within a few days, the right side of his face became numb and he started experiencing pain.

“I lost all feeling in my face, teeth, nose, tongue, eyes, entire part of my head,” he said.

These symptoms have spread through her body and have intensified over the years, with doctors across the UK saying the vaccine is to blame.

Pfizer said patient safety is paramount and reports of adverse reactions are taken very seriously.

It said hundreds of millions of doses have been administered globally and “the benefit-risk profile of the vaccine remains positive for all authorized indications and age groups”.

Mr Lowe said that although he was not opposed to vaccines, his life had been destroyed.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) said the benefits of the vaccines in preventing COVID-19 and its associated serious complications outweigh the currently known side effects in most patients.

Mr Lowe was referred to Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where he was told that the vaccine was “being recognized as a toxin by my body, and that was causing my problems”.

He broke down and started crying.

He said: “My wife and I were sitting in this little room in Westminster with consultants telling me that the vaccine had destroyed the nerve on the right side of my face and that there was a very low chance that I would ever recover from it. I will be able to recover.”

In letters seen by BBC News NI, pain management experts in London confirmed the onset of symptoms could be attributed to a Covid vaccine booster.

In correspondence to Mr Lowe’s GP last May, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust confirmed that “our multidisciplinary team agreed that the onset of symptoms could be attributed to the Covid vaccine booster”.

In April 2024, Mr Lowe was diagnosed with “traumatic trigeminal neuropathy” by a consultant neurologist at the Southern Health Trust, with “the Covid vaccine as the main cause”.

• NI government consults on mandatory vaccines

He also developed a small fiber sensory neuropathy, which the consultant said was “one of the associated neurological presentations following the vaccine”.

Mr Lowe said: “I struggle when I think about what the next 10 years are going to hold for me, because in roughly three years it has destroyed me and it is getting worse. “

Mr Lowe, from Omagh, said small fiber neuropathy affected his entire body, from his toes to his fingers.

He suffers from dry eye syndrome and wears sunglasses inside and out due to his sensitivity to light.

“I feel like there are clamps on either side of my head, squeezing it all the time,” he said.

“I have been told that my condition is improving. It is about to get worse.”

“I didn’t ask for this,” he said.

He said he took the vaccine in good faith and feels he has been “left to rot”.

“I am in so much pain, my life is barely worth living except for my family,” he said.

He said he no longer felt like himself.

“Before that I was in a rock band, playing guitar, singing, writing songs, recording albums and I loved it,” he told BBC News NI.

He added, “Now it is just a memory.”

The former college lecturer had to retire medically.

He said chronic pain is hard to explain because people think of “a toothache or a broken leg.”

“Once your foot is broken, it begins to heal.

“My pain is getting worse day by day.”

Mr Lowe praised all the medical professionals he had seen, who he said “tried everything” to help him but could only give him medication.

He said his GP was “fantastic” but he “didn’t have the magic wand I needed”.

Mr Lowe said he would like the stigma around injuries caused by Covid vaccines to be removed.

He said that many people do not take them seriously.

Mr Lowe said he has never opposed vaccinations that have been tried and tested.

He said he was not allowed to take any further vaccines.

Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said vaccines were “absolutely essential” to allow society to move on from the pandemic.

“Once vaccines became available, the death rate dropped significantly,” he said.

Professor McKee said all vaccines come with a risk of reactions and there will be a “small number of reactions” when large numbers of people are vaccinated.

Although he could not comment on individual cases, he said reactions like Mr Lowe’s were “extremely rare”.

Mr Lowe said he had exhausted all the medications and treatments available in the UK and that they were not working and he wanted “medical and psychological support”.

“I want someone to recognize that the vaccine did this.”

His wife Ginny said that life was extremely difficult.

He said he had a “wonderful, normal life” in a world turned upside down.

She said that Larry cries and screams in pain at night.

He said, “We’ve lost a part of Larry and it’s hard to get that back.”

Dr. Lewis Herron, deputy director of public health at PHA, said all vaccinations and medications can have some side effects.

“The most common side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine are mild and resolve within a week,” he said.

“Like all vaccines and medicines, the safety of COVID-19 vaccines is constantly being monitored.”

Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency Is responsible for regulating medicines, including vaccines, and carries out robust safety monitoring and surveillance of all COVID-19 vaccines in the UK.

It said that vaccination is the most effective way to reduce deaths and serious illness caused by Covid-19.