It started with a blueberry at breakfast, then dog poo under a lawnmower. For Dr. Paul Wicks, both were signs something had changed after more than two years without taste or smell.

The 44-year-old dad-of-two from Litchfield, Staffordshire, said a specially developed chewing gum used in a University of Nottingham clinical trial restored both senses after he lost them following a COVID-19 infection in August 2022.

The pilot study, designed by Dr. Nicole Yang, had participants chew flavoured gums for 12 weeks. The gums used super-strength flavours, including spicy, minty, sour and sweet, in an effort to encourage repair of brain connections linked to smell and taste.

Paul, a medical researcher, said: “My sense of smell and taste went with COVID, and never came back.

“I couldn’t smell anything when taking out the trash or changing diapers, but I also found it sad that everything smelled like nothing.

“Your memory formation is influenced by smells, birthday cakes, your dog, things from your childhood. I was concerned I wasn’t making good memories, especially with my kids and wife.”

He said he had been able to eat the spiciest curries with no effect and missed familiar smells including coffee beans, shaving cream, his favourite foods and his children’s hair.

Paul learned about the trial through the charity SmellTaste, for people with impaired smell and taste.

The decentralised clinical trial was carried out from participants’ homes rather than at the research facility. Participants were given specially formulated chewing gums.

There were 16 people in the pilot. The university said 67 percent saw their sense of smell improve and 83 percent reported an improvement in taste.

Paul said: “The theory Nicole [Yang] had was that if you want to train yourself to distinguish flavor, you have to eat things.

“The chewing gums were specially formulated to keep their flavor for longer, and actually change flavor as you chew.

“The flavors were formulated to hit different combinations, like sweet, salty, sour, cooling menthol, a spicy one.”

He chewed the gums every morning and every evening. After six weeks of the 12-week trial, which began in November 2024, he noticed a change while eating oats with blueberries.

“For the first few weeks of the trial I didn’t notice anything, until I tasted a blueberry in my oats for breakfast one day and this sweet flavor exploded,” he said.

“That was the first time I had tasted my breakfast in years.”

A few days later, he said, the change became even clearer.

“The dog poo and cut grass assaulted my senses, but it gave me hope something was working,” he said.

“Over the next six weeks I started being able to taste food, smell my kids’ hair after the shower, and smell my deodorant.

“And by the end of the trial, I had clinically significant improvements.”

Paul said his taste and smell have now returned to what they were before COVID-19.

“Over the weeks I started being able to taste and smell things again, and now I’m back to where I was pre-COVID. I feel great,” he said.

“Now one of the highlights of my week is refilling my coffee machine with beans.

“When you lose something and then get it back, it gives you a new appreciation. I literally stop and smell the roses.”

He said he had largely accepted the loss would be permanent.

“I’d pretty much accepted I’d never get my taste or smell back,” he said.

“Once I had gone for a nice meal for my birthday and they brought out all this lovely food and wine, and I couldn’t smell or taste any of it.

“The world felt a bit gray.

“Now, I still say ‘hooray!’ whenever I smell the trash, until I have to empty it.”

The team at the University of Nottingham, led by Dr. Yang, is now hoping to secure funding for a larger trial.

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