Wheelchair-Bound After Her Covid Jab, Alison Butler is Still Waiting for Answers

For the past five years, 55 year-old Alison Butler has effectively been in lockdown. Following her second Covid jab, Alison’s health has significantly deteriorated and she can no longer go out by herself. Formerly a fit and active full-time worker in a local school, she was medically retired in 2023, having been unable to work since June 2021. Wheelchair-bound when outdoors, with a husband whose health has also recently declined, Alison now has to wait until one of her sons is available to assist before making plans to venture outside the confines of her home in Caerphilly, South East Wales.

Alison had taken the jabs out of a sense of duty and a degree of pressure in her role working with children. Over a year later, owing to her tenacity and after facing many obstacles, she obtained a diagnosis of post Covid vaccine sequelae (meaning after effects) and a written admission from Public Health Wales that there was “no pathway in Wales for vaccine injury diagnosis”.

Towards the end of 2024, Alison’s petition to the Senedd asking for a pathway of diagnosis and treatment for people “suffering from adverse COVID-19 vaccine side effects” garnered 10,898 electronic signatures and 414 on paper. This was, in theory, enough to trigger a debate; however, the petition was kicked down the road in anticipation of Module 4 of the UK Covid Inquiry. In actual fact, Alison’s was the third largest petition in the history of the Senedd.

The Senedd research page stated:

The Welsh Government state in response to the petition: …if anyone is experiencing symptoms similar to those experienced by people with Long Covid, regardless of what may have caused them, I would encourage them to use the integrated community rehabilitation services established in all health boards via the Adferiad (Recovery) programme. They also highlight that those who have suffered from an adverse reaction may be eligible for a vaccine damage payment from a compensation scheme operated by the UK Government.

Jeremy Miles, then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, in his correspondence, mentioned: “I understand researchers are working to understand if there is any potential connection between the COVID-19 vaccination and what is being referred to as Long Vax.”

Apparently ‘Long Vax’ has been baffling doctors who are hesitant to mention it in case it is seized upon by so-called ‘anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorists’. This is the sort of agenda-driven, non-evidence-based narrative that Module 4 of the UK Covid Inquiry has been accused of by Oxford academics Professor Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson. Similarly, the UK Medical Freedom Alliance has worked tirelessly to produce its ‘deep-dive’ into Module 4, presented by Dr Liz Evans, its founder and CEO. Such narratives can only serve to deter people from questioning the safety and efficacy of mRNA injections.

Dr Evans, describing Module 4 as a “smug, self-congratulatory propaganda exercise”, outlined how her group was denied core-participant status. They were invited to submit written evidence; however, the 50 pages of evidence submitted by the UKMFA was subsequently ignored. Dr Evans describes how vaccine-injured spokespersons were “drowned out by a biased, ideologically driven team of lawyers who allowed unevidenced claims by expert witnesses to go unchallenged and who, on several occasions, became aggressive towards the vaccine injury spokespersons with hostile questions and interruptions”.

Similarly, Alison still feels anger about the way her petition was treated. She has since submitted a detailed FOI request to Cardiff and Vale University Health Board enquiring about training and guidance for healthcare professionals in Wales in respect of diagnosing and treating adverse reactions to the Covid injections. Senedd Research maintained that:

In Wales, efforts have been made to enhance GPs’ awareness of vaccine side effects. Public Health Wales provides guidance documents and e-learning modules for healthcare professionals to keep them informed about vaccine safety, potential side effects and how to communicate with patients. When it comes to diagnosing and treating adverse reactions to the vaccine, this is based on clinical evaluations.

The above statement did not align with the reality of the situation, exposed by Alison’s request, which revealed that the All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre (via Yellow Card Centre Wales) did not provide e-learning modules, structured training packages or formal written guidance specifically aimed at recognising, diagnosing or managing COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions. Instead, they created an ‘information hub’ whose purpose was mainly signposting to other organisations’ resources (mostly the MHRA). Although anecdotal, one GP admitted off the record to Alison in 2022: “We knew, but we couldn’t diagnose.”

The Senedd research response linked to a page from Public Health Wales entitled Immunisation Training Resources and Events. It begins by outlining their approach to “maintaining high vaccine uptake” and mentions that their approach is “also recommended by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) working group on vaccine hesitancy”. Interestingly, this page contains no explicit references to either the Yellow Card scheme or adverse event training. It begs the question whether the repeated sponsorship in Wales of the annual National Immunisation Conference by pharmaceutical companies, albeit for hospitality and production, has any bearing on the content of these training schedules.

During the three-minute discussion given to Alison’s petition, Rhys ab Owen – an independent Senedd member – mentioned that not only did the committee feel that this topic would be best covered by Module 4 of the inquiry, it would also be looked at by the Senedd Oversight Committee (Wales COVID-19 Inquiry Special Purposes Committee). The remit of this committee was to examine each module of the Covid Inquiry and to identify any Wales-specific gaps requiring further scrutiny. However, the committee ceased to exist prior to Module 4 in October 2025.

In the meantime, Alison puts what little energy she has into trying to make life better for herself. The support she has received from Care and Repair, a local Wales-wide charitable movement, has been invaluable in helping her adapt her home to her needs. Much of the work needed has only been made possible due to a modest and unexpected inheritance, which ordinarily might have been used for Alison and her husband to take a well-deserved holiday or other luxury. She is hoping that soon her garden might be made wheelchair-accessible so that she will at least be able to go outside and even onto the pavement independently.

Alison was discharged by her consultant in 2025 as her symptoms were considered ‘stable’ – though she confided: “I don’t want to be stable, I want to be better, but with no dedicated pathway for tests and treatments what hope do I have?”

Nicola is a former teacher, with a diploma in journalism. Follow her on X here. Her Substack page, the Welsh Economic Forum can be read here.