"I had Covid-19 and now all food tastes rotten and smells the same as urine"

Sarah Govier, 44, caught the virus in May and like many others lost her sense of smell.

But months after it came back she was struck by a bizarre new symptom - a total distortion of her sense of smell and taste.

The mum-of-two said nearly "all food smells rotten" and she's lost weight because she can barely bring herself to eat some of her favourite meals.

She likens the taste of meat to floral soap or perfume, toothpaste tastes more like petrol than mint, and coffee has an odour of car fumes or cigarette smoke.

Garlic and onions reminds her of a mix of wet dog and stagnant water, while chocolate cake tastes so bad she has to spit it out.

The medical name for her symptoms is 'parosmia', and sufferers have even likened their once sweet-smelling perfumes and shampoo to bile.

Doctors have found people with Covid-19 lose their sense of smell because the virus damages the receptor nerve endings or supporting cells within their nose.

These scent-detecting nerve endings tell your brain how to interpret the chemical information that makes up a smell, and when damaged or heal incorrectly can lead to parosmia.

Sarah, an occupational therapist from Whitstable, Kent, has set up a Facebook support group where members share experiences, theories and 'smell training' tips.

She said: "Coffee tasted horrible and cleaning my teeth with toothpaste felt like brushing them with petrol - it was vile!

"At first, everything smelt basically the same, so coffee smelt the same as if someone was smoking or like car fumes.

"Garlic and onions smelt awful - I can't even describe it, and because they're in basically every recipe or ready meal it made cooking very challenging!

"If I went into someone's house and they were cooking I would smell a mixture of wet dog and rancid water - everything just stank like mould!

"I was having to sniff things before I ate them and it felt quite feral, like a weird kind of animal!