A COVID patient can smell for the first time since childhood after recovering from the virus.
Nancy Simpson 25, had long struggled to smell but did not know why.
The 25-year-old, from London, grew up without a sense of smell but was stunned when her nose sprung into action after she caught the bug at Christmas.
Now filling her home with scented candles, dabbing on perfume and enjoying the whiffs of fruits and herbs in the kitchen, Nancy said the return of the sense was overwhelming.
She told The Sun: “I stayed at home over Christmas, isolating in my room, and one day I realised I was able to smell everything.
“Sometimes it’s a lot to deal with but I’m very happy.
“I could still taste before but now food tastes amazing.
“The things I really like smelling are fruit, fruity scents, candles, and using herbs in my cooking – I’m just storming through those now. I wear my perfume more and burn candles more.
“I didn’t really like to eat salmon but now I really like it, so we’re going to try foods I didn’t like before and see how I feel about them now.”
Millions of Brits have felt Nancy’s plight during the pandemic with anosmia – losing the sense of smell – a common symptom of Covid.
Dr Jane Parker, a taste and smell expert at the University of Reading, said viral infections can damage nerves in the nose which stops them sending the right signals to the brain.
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Most people get the sense of smell back as they recover, but some suffer long-term or even permanent changes to their smell or taste.
Dr Parker said Nancy’s case was “fascinating” and she didn’t know of any others like it in the UK.
She said: “Covid is keeping us on our toes – we keep finding odd cases here and there that we can’t explain.
“There’s very little research into the sense of smell and unless you’ve lost it or lived with somebody who’s lost it you just don’t realise the impact it has. For some people it can be devastating.
“It’s really come to the fore because of Covid.”
