A WOMAN from Alston is one of the families pursuing legal action against a pharmaceutical company over the damaging impact the Covid-19 vaccine has caused for some.

Vikki Spit is amongst 17 bereaved families - alongside 54 patients who suffered severe reactions but survived - to pursue civil action against AstraZeneca.

Vikki lost her fiancée Zion in May 2021, fourteen days after he received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

A coroner concluded in August 2022 that the 48-year-old's death was a direct result of receiving the jab.

READ MORE: Vikki Spit wins first AstraZeneca vaccine compensation settlement after fiancé’s death

"The attitude is definitely turning since we went public with our intent to litigate against AstraZeneca," Vikki said.

"The government has failed spectacularly, they've left us no choice but to take legal action.

"We've been trying to get them to help for nearly two years and at this point and they've done very little.

"The fact of the matter is, when Z had the vaccine, people had already died because of it. AstraZeneca and the government were still insisting it was safe.

"You couldn't find anything about it at the time that suggested it was anything other than 100 per cent safe. That's a massive failing in their very 'robust and thorough' testing," she said.

READ MORE: 'We're being suppressed' despite inquest vindication after vaccine death says Vikki Spit

Pursuing the action against the Sweden/Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company is Scott-Moncrieff & Associates Ltd.

Vikki and members of Vaccine Injured Bereaved UK are also calling for the vaccine compensation scheme to be reformed to allow others who have been injured by the vaccine to receive compensation more easily under a 'sliding scale' - as at the moment, eligible victims must show they have become 60 per cent disabled as a result to receive a one-off payment.

"We campaign together, we support each other and we've become a very close-knit community.

"Brought together in the worst possible circumstances, we've given each other way more help than the government has," Vikki said.

Included in the group is the husband of Lisa Shaw, the BBC Radio Newcastle presenter who died at the age of 44 after developing headaches a week after getting her first dose of the vaccine.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg, we fully expect there will be hundreds if not thousands more joining as this becomes more publicly known," Vikki said.

READ MORE: 'We’ve been ignored and abused for the past year' says widow after vaccine death

"I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel, people are recognising we are real.

"We are a tiny number proportion of people - why is it so difficult to help us?"

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "More than 144 million Covid vaccines have been given in England, which has helped the country to live with Covid and saved thousands of lives.

“All vaccines being used in the UK have undergone robust clinical trials and have met the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) strict standards of safety, effectiveness and quality.

“The vaccine damage payments scheme provides additional support to help ease the burden on individuals who have, in extremely rare circumstances, been severely disabled or died due to receiving a government-recommended vaccine for a listed disease.

“Vaccines are the best way to protect against severe disease from Covid and we would urge anyone who still hasn’t yet taken up the offer of a jab to come forward.”

AstraZeneca told the i-newspaper it was unable to comment on 'ongoing legal matters' regarding its Covid vaccine.

The pharmaceutical company said the vaccine helped to save more than six million lives worldwide in the first year of availability alone, with over three billion doses of the vaccine being supplied to more than 180 countries.