In this episode, Nicole, a devoted mum of four from Auckland, shares her heartbreaking testimony of bullying to take the Pfizer jab, and the brutal aftermath — clots, autoimmune diseases, family rifts and the irony that officials knew the dangers all along — a story of maternal courage silenced by the system.
Nicole was a happy, healthy stay-at-home mum of four from North Auckland. She was close to extended family, very social and had long-standing friends.
“My family was my world, and my children are my world.”
She had researched the vaccines early and was against taking it, having researched the risk vs benefits profile. She was also fiercely protective of her children.
“I actually was looking into it. I had let my son’s father know, ‘Don’t you dare vaccinate my boy.’ I was aware of myocarditis and that in young boys.”
Her son was 12 at the time.
But 2021 brought mandates, job threats and intense family pressure. Her daughter’s dream job as a florist was on the line. They weren’t allowed to go to family Christmas. Nicole and her daughter had been adamant that they weren’t going to get the Covid vaccine, but eventually felt they had no choice. Nicole decided to go with her daughter to get the vaccine.
“I’m going to throw myself in there first, if my daughter was getting it — I wasn’t letting her do that alone. If we go down, we go down together.”
They got the same Pfizer batch on the same day. While still in the pharmacy they sent photos to the family, who replied, “I’m so proud of you.”
“That night I woke up in the night crying. I had a really bad headache. And my legs were hurting. I was limping.”
Three weeks after the vaccine she rang her husband as she was experiencing excruciating chest pain, thinking she was having a heart attack. The doctor’s response was direct:
“Don’t get another vaccine!”
Basic heart tests came back fine. They sent her home with brochures about stress and anxiety. Over the following months her symptoms escalated. She tracked her heart rate because of tachycardia and sharp chest pains. She describes her shortness of breath as “crazy”. Eight months later she could hardly breathe as she tried to go for a simple walk on the beach.
“I got out of my car and went to walk on the beach. I got down to the sand and turned around and went straight back to my car. I felt drunk, I felt like I was going to fall over.”
Nicole barely made it to the local clinic, she describes “pretty much falling through the door.” They called an ambulance. At North Shore Hospital they found multiple clots in both of her lungs. Pulmonary embolism. She was told she’d be on blood thinners for life.
She later realised the terrifying initial leg pain and chest episode three weeks after the vaccine was probably the clots passing through her body — this was acknowledged by her doctor.
But yet another health trauma emerged in her family and Nicole needed to sideline getting help for herself: Just five months after Nicole’s diagnosis, her daughter Poppy, developed lumps in her neck and was diagnosed with stage three Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
They spent three weeks in the blood cancer ward.
“Things went downhill real fast with Poppy. She reacted to the chemo. Then she had to get a blood transfusion, and she reacted to that too, and it started attacking her bone marrow. She was in excruciating pain. She lost a lot of weight … we nearly lost her.”
A nurse they had become close with quietly told them that teenage blood cancers have spiked hugely. The nurse told her: “They are so overwhelmed since the rollout of the vaccine.”
Poppy fought hard and is now in remission, travelling the world and “living her best life.” Nicole is emotional knowing her daughter is well.
“It keeps me happy. It makes me really happy.”
Nicole’s own health continued to decline. She was eventually diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
“Lupus attacks everything. It’s your own immune system attacking you. It turns on you, it becomes overactive and it gets confused.”
Before the vaccine Nicole describes herself as happy and “really healthy.” Afterwards it has been “one thing after another.” She says the healthcare journey is “traumatic”. Many doctors advised her not to mention the vaccine. One cardiologist stopped her mid-sentence when she answered honestly about when the tachycardia started:
“You know what? I’m just going to stop you right there. You could possibly have these conversations (about vaccine injury) with a private cardiologist, but here in the public system, we cannot speak on that.”
Nicole has been told by other doctors that’s it’s best she doesn’t bring it up because she’ll “be treated differently” and given a different level of care.
Through it all, her children and supportive partner keep her going. She tried returning to work as a disability carer but had to cut her hours as her health deteriorated. She can no longer work and feels like a burden.
Her once-close family are now divided.
“There’s a huge division now between me and my family. I find I have to be careful what we say with each other. We were very political and we were on the same side … but I’m not on the same side of them anymore.”
She was labelled selfish, told she had gone down a “rabbit hole,” and called a “conspiracy theorist” and a “bad mum” for trying to protect her children — even though her kids are fully vaccinated for other diseases. She says: “It was just this one.”
Despite her efforts — and bullying she endured for trying to safeguard him — her 12-year-old son was vaccinated without her knowledge or consent, lured by a Pak’nSave voucher. She only discovered it months later when taking him to doctors to investigate his chest pain and get X-rays. Since then, his health has declined too, compounding the family’s pain.
Nicole’s determination to protect her 12 year old son was because she had researched the emerging risks and was acutely aware of myocarditis concerns, especially for the young. This knowledge was also known by officials — including Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, who was briefed on myocarditis risks in youth by the COVID-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group as early as July 2021, and at various times afterwards.
Later advice in December 2021 specifically cautioned against two-dose mandates or vaccine pass requirements for 12–17-year-olds which were being imposed at the time under the Covid-19 Protection Framework Order. This was also known by the then COVID response Minister, Chris Hipkins and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Mums like Nicole weren’t guessing — they were informed and protective. Their voices were dismissed and she was bullied — while the system that knew the risks proceeded anyway, even stoking the social coercion. Her wish is for accountability for those who overrode parents like her and who lied to society about the risks.
This story is part of The Tribute NZ project — giving voice to New Zealanders whose Covid vaccine injuries are still minimised or ignored.
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