Coventry campaigner awaits answers in blood scandal report
Jason Evans from Coventry lost his dad to infected blood, when he was just four years old
A campaigner from Coventry has said he is awaiting answers and justice ahead of the release of the final report into the infected blood scandal.
An estimated 3,000 people have died as a result of infected blood products or transfusions from the 1970s and 80s.
Jason Evans from Coventry lost his dad in 1993 at the age of four years old, after he was infected with HIV and Hepatitis, and Jason now leads the Factor 8 campaign group.
Jason said: "It means everything, to have it go down on the official record that what happened shouldn't have happened and that it was preventable and should've been prevented - that really is the core goal.
"Wrongdoing has occurred and the inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff has said as much at the start of this year. There's little doubt the final report will be very critical of many individuals and organisations."
The government has called it "An appalling tragedy that never should have happened" and has said it has paid over £400 million in interim compensation payments to victims' estates.
Jason said: "There are parents who lost children, children who lost their parents. We have people whose whole families were infected and died as a result of this. Just when I think I've heard the worst imaginable story there's another one."
Campaign groups say a new treatment designed to treat haemophilia was made by pooling plasma from tens of thousands of people, leading it to be infected with viruses including hepatitis and HIV.
Jason said: "The fundamental finding we'd like to see is that Factor 8 concentrates should not have been approved for patient use until they had been heat-treated and made safe."