THOUSANDS of people in Oxfordshire volunteered themselves as Guinea pigs to help with national and international efforts to create life-saving vaccines.

Health bosses have thanked more than 7,000 participants who came forward for Covid-19 studies in the county since the beginning of the pandemic.

A total of 7,647 residents played a vital role in 31 studies supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in hospitals, care homes and GP practices across Oxfordshire.

Among participants was Janice Rowan who took budesonide through an inhaler as part of the PRINCIPLE trial after testing positive for the virus in December.

The 59-year-old, who is based in Banbury, was among 162 county people who got involved in the trial into whether a short course of existing drugs can reduce the severity of Covid-19 symptoms in vulnerable groups and help avoid hospital admissions.

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Mrs Rowan said: "About four days after I tested positive, I started feeling really really poorly.

"The headache was the worst problem, it was absolutely dreadful, but the thing that caused me the most anxiety was the cough.

"I thought about the damage to the lungs and I was worried I could be hospitalised."

The grandmother-of-one was offered the trial by her GP at Banbury Cross Health Centre.

Covid-19 trial participant Janice Rowan

Covid-19 trial participant Janice Rowan

She said: "My doctor asked me if I wanted to take part and I just said ‘yes’ without really thinking about it.

"Then I got the inhaler and I started to feel much better in myself three or four days later."

The trial found budesonide shortens recovery time in patients at risk of more severe illness and ruled out two further drugs.

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Other 1,500 people volunteered into the trial of University of Oxford's AstraZeneca vaccine, which was found to be up to 90 per cent effective.

The jab was approved for use in the NHS in December.

A further 462 out of 15,203 volunteers in the UK took part in the development of the Novavax vaccine at Oxford's Warneford Hospital.

Interim results show the jab is 89 per cent effective at preventing the virus, including new variants.

Professor Meghana Pandit, chief medical officer at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Oxford has been at the forefront of efforts to tackle Covid-19, whether through the rapid development of a vaccine, the search for effective treatments or the trials that have helped our understanding of the virus.

"None of the breakthroughs over the past year would have been possible without the thousands of patients who have agreed to take part in these clinical trials and the dedicated staff who have helped to carry them out."