'It's always felt like dad was murdered' - infected blood victim from Beds wants accountability
The final report from the official Inquiry is due in a week from today
Last updated 20th May 2024
Victims and their families across the East of England have been sharing their stories of life after blood infections, in one of the UK's biggest scandals.
Patients who received infected blood are hoping justice will be brought through a report into the scandal in the Infected Blood Inquiry, to be published in a week from today.
The countless number of victims are primarily hoping accountability will be taken for the thousands of lives affected by life-threatening blood infections between the 1970s and the early 1990s.
Among those affected is Chris Smith from Bedfordshire, whose father, a severe haemophiliac, contracted infections from contaminated blood products in the late 1970s.
He died a decade later, at the age of 32.
Chris said: "It was horrible growing up, and I have to admit, at times I didn't actually want to be on the planet anymore, because I'd spent all of my time with Dad."
"I would go to bed at night and after all the family had gone, I would sit and listen to my mum crying downstairs, it just was devastating. We lost everything."
Chris was only eight years old when his father died of HIV from infected blood products, leaving his family in a financial strain through the loss of his businesses and possessions.
Like many others, Chris joined a campaign group calling for justice to be given for their loss for what he told us was a complicit government who had all the information and failed to act.
He said: "All it takes is for one person to be infected, and at that point in time, what they were doing was collecting the blood and putting it all in a barrel together, so one person infected infected everything,"
"The government and all the scientists knew of these risks way before contaminated blood came around, so for me it's always felt like Dad was murdered."
"Our government was warned in 1983 by the European Health Commission, so it for me I don't understand how, with all of this knowledge available, this has been allowed to drag on for 36 years of my life."
"I want accountability, we lost, as a family, the life that we should have lived, and I know lots of other families that had it even worse."
"We were all robbed of the lives that we should have lived."
What does the government say?
A Government spokesperson said: "This was an appalling tragedy that never should have happened."
"We are clear that justice needs to be done and swiftly, which is why have acted in amending the Victims and Prisoners Bill."
“This includes establishing a new body to deliver an Infected Blood Compensation Scheme, confirming the Government will make the required regulations for it within 3 months of Royal Assent, and that it will have all the funding needed to deliver compensation once they have identified the victims and assessed claims."
“In addition, we have included a statutory duty to provide additional interim payments to the estates of deceased infected people."
“We will continue to listen carefully to the community as we address this dreadful scandal."