Leeds woman says she just wants answers from the blood scandal inquiry
Louise Edwards lost her Dad in the 80's when he was infected with HIV and Hepatitis C.
Last updated 24th Sep 2018
A public inquiry begins today to investigate the NHS scandal which resulted in up to 30,000 people being exposed to contaminated blood plasma during the 1970s and 1980s.
More than 2,000 people have since died, as a result of being given blood plasma containing HIV and Hepatitis C, and a further 3,000 are known to have become infected.
According to the Department of Health, it's possible that up to 30,000 people may have been exposed to the contaminated treatments during the period in question.
Many of those affected were haemophiliacs, who were told to start using a new treatment called "Factor VIII", which enabled their blood to clot normally and allowed them have the treatment at home, but with a shortage of donors, the NHS turned to various sources, including the prison population who were able to sell their blood.
Louise Edwards, from Leeds, is relieved for this process to be starting, but also frustrated by the amount of time her and her family have had to wait for justice.
“My Dad who was a haemophiliac, contracted HIV through the infected blood products, and we believe he was one of the first people to die of it on the 5th of September 1985.”
Louise was only 12 years old when her Dad passed away. Her parents had sheltered Louise and her brother from the details of his illness, but he’d been in and out of hospital for 18 months. According to Louise’s mum, these stays in hospital were “horrendous” and degrading in themselves:
“He had a sticker on his door saying ‘AIDs patient’. Mum said she had to sit in the dayroom hearing people saying “that shouldn’t be allowed in our hospital, we shouldn’t have this.”
"At this time, the stigma around AIDS was huge; it still is, and it was a complete shock to hear the news. Mum said "don't tell anyone what you've heard, because you don't know how people are going to react".
Even now, a lot of Louise's friends and work colleagues are unaware of these events in her childhood, but she said that now is the time she wants to "stand up and be counted"; she also wants people to realise that AIDS and HIV can happen to anyone.
Now the inquiry is finally here, Louise admits she's been in tears this morning, "It's been too long. It shouldn't have taken 34 years for somebody to stand up and say "I'm sorry, we did the wrong thing; we admit it. This is what happened and this is why it happened."
While Louise accepts this won't bring her dad back, she says she just wants closure on why it happened, who knew, how high it went in the government and why they denied it for so long.
The inquiry is beginning with victim statements, and is expected to start taking evidence after Easter 2019.
Louise says that talk of compensation is unimportant; "It's not going to replace my dad, it's not going to bring back my nephews and niece their grandfather. It's empty money; it's almost blood money at the end of the day".
Her ultimate hope is that the inquiry brings people the answers they deserve, and that as a result, the people still living with the effects get the support they need